Erisu's Grimoire

[Erisu Kazahana]

Pokemon
So, I found a GBA emulator for my PSP, and I got the Touhoumon rom. I passed it around to people who are interested, and I got 3 other people to start playing it. As much as beating it is cool and all, the point of the game is just the fact that it's a fan-made mod of pokemon mixed with Touhou. If anyone wants to rush through and beat the game asap, might as well get the original game. Besides, there's no link cable support. My target party will be: Mokou, Alice, Sanae, Parsee, Yuyuko, and Marisa.

I also got into the Pokemon Card Game. I really didn't know what deck to run at first. But I saw the Eevees, then asked if it was possible to run all the Eevees in one deck. It was half joke and half serious business. But, Kuro built a Leafeon/Glaceon deck for me. So, now we're trying to get cards to update it so that it can match up against some of the pros.

Eevee Deck mk.I
It has the basic 4 Eevees, 2 Glaceons, and 2 Leafeons. It's supported by 2 Bulbasaurs, 2 Ivyssaurs, 2 Venasaurs, 3 Finneons, and 3 Luminons. Trainers and supporters are crap.
Grade: Crap. Little to no draw power, little to no search power, no revive power, almost nothing. The only thing keeping it effective is Venasaur's Miracle Aroma and Luminon's Lure Ring. Aside from the core soldiers: Glaceon/Leafeon.


Eevee Deck mk.II
Swapped some trainers and supporters. Got more energies, since the first make didn't have enough grass/water energies and was running a bad colorless one (good if you were losing). Gained some better search power, has one card to get back 3 cards from discard.

Eevee Deck mk.III
Series of swaps: Swapped out Finneon family for Spinda/Sentret/Regigigas and swapped trainers and supporters. It had so much draw power, my attack power and field control fell. Got two new stadiums.

Eevee Deck mk. IV >current<
Swapped out 5 water energies for 5 grass energies, complete redo of trainers and supporters, removed Spinda and Regigigas for new Venasaur (plus preevolutions). New tactics involve using Eevees as main hitters while charging Venasaurs for last chance. This deck has now removed nearly all temporary cards (Finneon family among other trainers).

Eevee Deck mk. V
Plan on swapping out sentret family, since new supporter draw power overshadows attack draw power. Also, it reduces the amount of targets for the opponent to draw prizes from. Sure, it means that at max, I can only run 7 pokemon (4 Eevees, 3 Bulbasaurs), but I can now focus on which pokemon to get first, instead of figure out which is best for the situation.

Future additions:
Glaceon Lv X, Leafeon Lv X, and Feraligatr family. I want to try to dual deck or something. Basically, I technically will have two decks, but I need the core trainers/supporters/pokemon and just swap between a mainly water deck and mainly grass deck. It's cause Feraligatr can help Leafeon out very greatly, while Venasaur helps cover for Glaceon's sniping ability (aka, put the defending pokemon to sleep, poison them, and burn them while Glaceon chips away at a bench pokemon). But idonno... I'll be running either less trainers or less energies if I get everything...

Money is tight, but we can make somewhat a business out of this... somewhat. I'm doing it for fun ^.^.

Which does remind me... We had several 'epic' duels. First one for me was when I first tested out my deck. It was a 3 way battle, and I was kinda the spectator, since it was my 2nd-3rdish duel. So, I'm silently picking off pokemon. Then when I get to my 2nd to last prize, my opponents realized that I was going to win and started to rush me. But, I had an @$$pull and won: Lucians Assignment transfers as much energy from one pokemon to another, Luminon's Lure Ring brings out a high MaxHP pokemon from the bench, Luminon's Reverse Stream does 30 damage + 10 for each water energy attached. He tried to run, but I brought the wounded back and killed it.
Whenever I go against David, it's almost nearly the same thing. First, we start out kinda slow. Then, he full bench evolves. Then, the field looks like it's working for him. Then I have an @$$pull of a hand and completely overkill. I think we've played 15 times, and he's only won once, because I only had 1 pokemon out.
We had a 3 vs 3 battle. It was Kuro(giratina/dusknoir deck), Ace(makeshift fire/lightning deck), and I(eevee deck) on one side, Andrea(giratina deck, Trent(steel/fighting deck ithink), and David(fighting flying deck) on the other. Andrea got the first prize at the start of the game, but Ace picked up both his prizes first. He basically shot down what I wounded. Both sides pulled out giratina, which meant that everyone had to discard a card to attack. The key point of the game was towards the end. But during the game: Trent pressured his teammates often, kinda telling them that, "You know what to do." But they often messed up and had little coordination in knocking out pokemon. On our side, Ace was pokemonless early on, since his one pokemon was knocked out early. He was hanging by a thread throughout the whole match. Towards the end, our opponents had two chances to win the game. The first chance was David, when he could have chosen to knock out Ace, but instead, he blew my pokemon back into my hand. The second chance was Andrea, when she declared the wrong attack. Either way though, it was either lay a 30 damage attack or risk it all on a coin flip 80 damage.
Trent made a brand new deck, and started challenging people with it. It was a Nidoking/Gengar deck. He beat several people in a row, but only counted 3 (since his rule of, you can only count a win/loss if it's the first round against the person). Then it was my turn. Our game was very fast. He only had a Ghastly and I only had an Eevee -> Leafeon. I won within minutes. Then he challenged me again. Same thing happened: his sole Ghastly vs my Eevee -> Leafeon.
Baker makes some of the deck eating decks. He draws and searches through his deck within 10 turns. And he made an SP deck. It was fast, mean, deadly, and anti-poke-power. I pulled out all my Eevees, and evolved them, and had them all attack at least once. That was 4 lossses. But in the meantime, I had a pair of Venasaurs pumping up. He countered my Miracle Aroma power, until he ran dry of counters. Then, the turning point of the battle was after he KOs my meatshield sentret. I just needed 1 KO, and he also needed 1 KO. I pulled out a Triple Venasaur, 2 who could do miracle aroma, and 1 who could deal 40/80/120/160 damage. One of each Venasaur was damaged pretty badly, and any sniping attack would have taken them out. @$$pull: with a high powered Venasaur, who needed 4 energies, in my bench and a full health no-energy-to-retreat Venasaur out, I used switch to get my high powered Venasaur out and KO for the win. Baker was supremely pissed, because if he got his next turn, he would have played a pokemon who snipes when he's placed onto the field, scooped him up, played him again to snipe again, then scoop him up, then play him a 3rd time to deal 30 damage, just enough to KO my wounded Venasaurs.



In other news... I've registered for Spring courses. I found out that I can't transfer until the following year. I still have to stick around next year to take the rest of the courses I need.




Till Next Time,
~Erisu (I might think of playing the WoW card game... but same reason as MtG, just because it has an interesting gameplay. But it might be too complex for my tastes.)

[Erisu Kazahana]

Final Post of 2009

A time to look back on the accomplishments and things I wished that I could have done. There are alot of things that I've done this year, but there might have been some things I wish I could have done. *procrastinating mind*

The far past, something I can't run to. Many people around me grew up around here, so they can visit the places they grew up in and visit friends they met ages ago. For me, my past is in Japan. I can't just go there. Even if I do, it's not going to be the same as I left it. The people I met, the places I've been. They're most likely gone or have changed to the point of no recognition. One of the best things about being raised in Japan were the people you knew. Since we as Americans lived on bases, mostly everyone knew everyone else. And there were parties almost every week, for each of the individual elasticities. I've lived in Atsugi for the longest time, and I've made so many memories there... I'd prefer to find the pictures to tell the tales. Negishi was one of the best places I've lived in Japan. The elementary school had only 1 class per grade level. Every kid in that school knew each other. The 6th graders were almost infamous for being smart and cool, which I was when I went there. Then we moved to Yokosuka. So much mischief as a teenager. But now, I can't go back. The people I was raised with all went back to the U.S., back to their homestates. It'll take a long time to find them, and an even longer time to reaquaint myself with them.


~Till Next Time
Erisu (I did find my oldest bestest friend again, and I'm happy! Happy New Year!)

[Erisu Kazahana]

Rain Rain Blizzard Rain Rain Rain

So, out in this desert, we had rain. Not just a light days worth of rain either. 4 days of rain. And one blizzard for an hour.
Tues: ran home from volunteer work through the wind and rain, plus some rivers and lakes.
Wed: ran an errand run. Because I didn't go to the grocery store, I had to go this day. When I went, I stood at the bus stop far east and watched as the water levels rose and the cars hit the hidden gap in the river. When I got off the bus at the grocery store I had to go to, it started to snow. Sadly, I had to wade through a lake on the street. So to warm myself up, I went into the Burger King and ate before I went shopping. On my way home, I dropped off the bus one stop too early. At least I got to see the snow covered desert.
Thus: ran an errand run. We sold our van, went to the DMV to finalize it, paid our electric bills, and went to the mall. I ran through to pay some credit card bills. When we got home, I could have sworn I lost one of my mom's credit cards....
Fri: I had to go to my work. But I took a detour into the mall..... I got there too early though, so I started to walk around the closed stores. Lake Target (as I dub it) took half the Target and half the Lowes parking lots. The rain was so horrible, it actually caused the parking lots to sink. The plumber who was sent to pump the water from the lake into the sewer told me that when the parking lot was built, the water was supposed to be able to drain into the sewer. But if you look at it now, the sewer is about an inch away from the edge of the lake. When I got into the mall, it was about an hour before any store opened. So I walked with everyone else who was walking laps around the mall. It's very enjoyable, despite me being alone and everyone walking in pairs. But when everything opened, I started to run to every store I went to and tried to find the credit card. It was to a fail. When I called my mom to tell her what happened, I asked if she found the card. She did, it was in my pants pocket when it went through the washer. And so, the story that never happened came to a close.

Recently, the power blew for a quarter of the house. My room, the adjacent storage room, and the master bedroom shower have no power. Also the security system is going haywire. So it's almost final, we're going to move sooner than later. We were planning on moving spring break, so that my brother and sister were in school while we moved. Then we moved it to summer break so that I still have an easy way of getting to school early. But now, we're moving the moment we have enough money to move.



In a more positive tone...
Touhou - The one and only series where you can be a fan of the fan.
It's come to my attention that Touhou has over 100,000 pictures floating on the web. The amount of music is beyond my knowledge, but I can guarantee at least 100 gigs worth of music can be seen floating across the internet. Now, seriously, if anyone can find any other series (animated or not, game or real life, western or eastern) that has this much fan material, just... wow... And crazy enough, it is not even a commercial game!


I tried to get into Magic the Gathering, but the rules seems way too complex... plus the chances of me getting a deck that I really want is slim. Yugioh on the other hand... I have some cards already, I can make a deck with half the cards I want, and I can possibly trade/buy the ones I need. Plus I'm a Yugioh vet, so I'm biased in my decision. I've recently started playing the PSP game, and man the deck building process is more hellish than I realized @.@. If my deck has no counter trap cards, I'm almost guaranteed to lose. But if I have too many cards, I'm almost guaranteed to lose. And I don't have a large card library to choose from. Some cards work well with others (that I don't have), others have super hate relationships with other cards. But at least I stared with a water deck, so it makes deck construction slightly easier.


We started to recruit more members into FrozenWind. Well, the game developing portion at least. We're going to need alot of people working on sprites and music, or at least give alot of time to them. We'll take it slow at least, we aren't in this to make huge amounts of fame and profits within a month. We'll play it like ZUN, where hopefully the fans will love it so much to get artworks and spinoffs of it out. Heh, in my dreams...


Till Next Time,
~Erisu (The serpent's tongue and the scorpion's bile)

[Erisu Kazahana]

I <3 My Job
On Friday, I attended my job orientation. I've been working since last semester, but at the start of each semester, we have orientation. As I sat there, surrounded by all the other tutors, I realized that there are so many student workers. And throughout the presentation, the presenters made me realize how I choose my job and how my job really affects all the other student's lives. It's really heartwarming to know that a bunch of people who can't figure out math and might have failed, actually passed because of my help (and the help of the other tutors). It also keeps me from being lonely when I walk around. There have been days over the semester where I would meet some of the people I tutor. They really appreciate all that I've done for them; even though a few of them failed their classes, they still appreciate all I've done for them. I'm still surprised that my career change from VG developing to Education has really made me so much more focused on accomplishing my goal, even if at a slow pace.

It's not about how you start or what you got at the end, it's about the experience of how you got to the end from the start. Besides, I'm not the type of person to rush to my own grave as soon as possible. I'd rather stop and smell the flowers.



Till Next Time,
~Erisu (I have one more week of vacation)

[Erisu Kazahana]

Gone with the AFK
So it's been awhile since I posted... anything. I've been so busy in the past month and the stresses of life just compile. At the downfall of my life, I saw some things that made my life improve. I failed my first linear algebra test, I had no work, I'm moving soon, my brother lost my PSP and the PSP I was going to hack, I'm never home between the hours of 8 in the morn till 9 at night, my friend is pregnant and lives in dreamworld, my enemies think I'm on their side, etc etc. In the light of these stresses, I've learned how to pass my first calc test, I did work my arse off to finally manage to get hours, I have hammered it in that I will move and set off to prep for it, I can't do shit about the lost PSP but I'll make do without one until I get a new one, I have started to enjoy the outdoors more and cherish my indoor times, and I just have to support the people I know to the best of my extent. Being positive really is a keystone of life.

So I finally (after a failed attempt at ordering) got a box of pokemon cards for myself/the FW. We had a miracle pull of all the primes (plus 1 extra meganium), the secret card, and half of both legend cards. It felt good to be a little kid again, ripping open packs of cards hoping to get some rare cards. I even got invited to trades later the day I got the cards.

I got Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. My first night of playing it, I was the only person under rank 50. But it was alright, I rose the ranks very fast because I was always on the winning side. There are 2 wins that I found n00bishly epic.
The first one, I was following my teammates around. They took a right turn into the building while I looked left. I saw an enemy come in, then I start spraying my smg all over the place until a bullet headshots him. Imagine that in slow motion, such a noob kill.
The second one, my teammates were complaining about how n00bish their snipers were. I run into a building, climb up the stairway, exit the back, then turn to see a sniper crouched at the doorway. I am just thinking.... how the heck did he not notice I passed his sights? So I shanked him. In slow motion.
I like MW2, it's a pretty good team based game. The only thing I don't like is how late I got it, because everyone else has better equipment than me. I don't mind, I just need to get up to the P90 and I'm all good.

I didn't have work hours last month. I finally got them though. I had to keep going back to my supervisor, asking if there are any open time slots for me. Then, 2 weeks ago, there is! But it's in the Palmdale site. All my classes are at the main site... so I could only work a few hours... When it got started up, I was the first and only worker on site. It turned out that they just started a Learning Center there. So I'm the first tutor on that site. I only have 2 tutees, which is about 2 hours. I will get more hours if more people request assistance at the Palmdale site... I hope I can work more hours. 8 hours a month is kinda... low?

March 12 is my bad luck day. It started with me almost being late for work. Then no one was at work. Then I missed the bus going to the eastern part of town. Then I missed all 3 buses going westwards... TWICE! Then my bus passed all three stops that I should/could have gotten off. When my bus made it to the transfer center, I missed the bus going back home. I ran after it, only to run out of leg strength and fall in the middle of the street. I was lucky all the lights turned red, otherwise I would have been ran over. A piece of my thumb ripped partially, my knee got scraped and is now sensitive to the touch, and my wrist feels twisted. But yeah, I missed the bus either way. When I got to the store I was supposed to go, I was limping around carrying at least 30 lbs of stuff. Then I missed the bus going home. I almost got hit by a rock on the bus, because some kids across the street threw it at the bus and it almost shattered the window on the side I was on. The only good things about the day was meeting 2 old friends of mine and not having to lift the 30 lbs home.


Compiled Boredom isn't dead, nor is it dying. At the moment, I'm just never home to update and I'm too busy on campus to draw out ideas. I hope that when I move, I'll be able to have more free time to update. If not, updates on the game will have to wait till summer. Till then, it's just characterizations and localizations.

Till Next Time,
~Erisu (in Wonderland and through the looking glass)

[Erisu Kazahana]

The Rigante
I just finished book 1 of the Rigante: Sword in the Storm. It is a 4 book long epic about Sword in the Storm, Connavar (sword in the sword is what his name means), as he grows up to fight for his nation of the Rigante. I absolutely loved it. It was almost non-stop action, suspense, drama, and wtf moments. I grew to love each and every one of the characters that helped Connavar, despite the fact quite a bit of them died, most of old age or one of those wtf moments. I hope to get the next book from AJ and read that one in a week, then the next, then the last. It has given me a great inspiration for Compiled Boredom...

As for CB. It really has been at quite the long hiatus. It really isn't... it's just that I've been updating on paper and by word more than on the forum. I'm semi-torn between two scenarios: either A> continue with what we're doing, thus forcing the creation of more characters or B> create lots of parallel universes or have characters come back often. The reason for option B is cause of my English class. I have to create a story, and one idea borrows characters from the main plot line and alters them to fit this one story. But when I release that story... I somewhat want it to be canon to the CB storyline, so I don't have to recreate the original story. Ah whatever, I'll do as I please.

Halo: Reach
3 Words: Modern Warfare Clone. That's all I can say about it. It's a good game. It's pluses are: Great Concept and I like the Halo Universe. It's CRAPS are: crappy new weapons (wtf, a craptastic new carbine for both sides? it's rate of fire is the same as its damage ratio and accuracy: Crap); backstabbing reminds me of GoW: you are stabbing a buddy for 5 seconds, while his buddy gets behind you to do the same to you; it's a Modern Warfare Clone, except the points you get are almost worthless (new outfits... really? at least in MW, you gain EXP and LEVEL UP, not you gain EXP and GET NEW CLOTHES THAT DO SHIT. Well, they earn you bragging rights: "I'm such a Halofag that I played this game for 73 straight hours just to get this full set of armor that doesn't let me have any better weapons or anything"); default buttons are crappier.
Ok, I'm just pissed that the weapons are crappier. The pistol and the needler are probably the only things that are decent in the game, I really hate the new rifles. The Plasma Cannon sucks, I had 4 shots aimed at a warthog. They all snailed their way across the field, 2 hit a corner as the hog turned, then the other 2 followed it into a wall between them.
I'm sorry, but Invasion has been done already. Hopefully no one thought it was a new concept. I do like how it does fit the scenario though. Still, UT. End of Complaint.
There are alot of new aesthetic changes, that I don't mind much. But most of those changes are, more or less, 1 second entertainments. It's not like ODST, where your character breathing actually does remind you that you are dying and need to stay in cover or you die. Here, the needler now tells you where to fire, which I somewhat didn't need, cause I test fire before I spray anyway, and the hit rectical does show up a little after I spray. Grenades can be shot in midair, which is more of a nuisance than a savior or epic moment. "Action" button... I'd rather have sprinting + the stacked effects from MW. Covenant compass completely sucks ass, how can I tell my teammates where to go if I can't identify North from West? Seriously, at least a little tiny N wouldn't hurt. I do have a problem with the 'stealth' mode: there are just way too many damned effects stacked onto one damned effect! 1. you can't hear shit. 2. your character can't be seen 5 seconds after activation. 3. your radar jams. 4. your ally's radar jams. 5. your enemy's radar jams. Oh I have to mention that the Plasma Pistol is now completely craptastic beyond repair. Back in ODST, the Plasma Pistol is a life savor: fully charged shot + pistols = dead brute. Back in Halo 2: plasma pistol + battle rifle = epic n00b combo. Now in Reach: plasma pistol overloads = batt drain and it doesn't fire.

Man I ranted about a game that I just played less than 3 hours of...


Till Next Time,
~Erisu Kazahana (Happy Mothers Day, I bought my mom a dozen roses. Didn't tell her until I showed them after my errand run.)

[Erisu Kazahana]

Blue Petals
I meant to blog 2 weeks ago when this happened, but just never had the time. I was completely stressed beyond my usual levels. It was so bad, I actually lost ten pounds and have yet to regain them, if ever.
First off, I had to drop my Linear Algebra class. It doesn't sound complex, but the fact that I took two math classes, mixed homework up between them, and failed the Calculus 3 portion of the Linear Algebra test. Yeah, it was complex. Plus I had Java, Linear, and Calculus on the same days of the week, and to top it off: I had math tutoring to do between both classes. I gave myself less than an hour between classes to shift from one subject to another. I fully gave up Linear when I had a test in Java and a test in Linear. I dropped before I got my results. I had a D on the test and my grade in class was a C+. But I stopped caring, I had to focus on Calculus 3.
Next is my Fiction Writing class. I turned in my experimental story, Blue Petals. It was 6 pages long and is the first chapter of a story. The English Major in the class hated the way I played with the language, despite two other students saying it's a good experiment. My teacher critiqued it hardcore within the first 2 paragraphs, and topped it off by showing that he can make a story about a 7-11 better than mine. I quite literally fainted in class. The good side though, I did learn alot about the meaning of words in a story. I had to go into a teacher-student conference with him, and he told me that my story had ambition, something he doesn't want to see in his class yet.

Patience is a virtue, they say. Well, Friday, I was very patient. So patient, I didn't do anything. I waited an hour for the bus, twice. Then I waited at work for four hours for something to happen. Then I waited for a business transaction that never happened. Then I waited for my aunt to get off work to tell her something. It was almost truly for nothing... I got absolutely no work done, no achievements closer to finishing, no nothing. It was the one and only day when I really felt like I could have done something, but was not given the offer to do so.

BlazBlue
I got back into the game. I practice as Nu and Litchi. With Nu, I can almost guarantee at least a 10-hit combo every time I strike. With Litchi, I really need to practice. Nu is easy to play as, most of her attacks can follow up with a midair combo that racks up hits and takes a quarter of the opponent's health off. Her distortion drive has a huge hitbox and can't really be canceled before it's launched. Her astral has damned insane priority, as in, once you see her launching her attack, you cannot do anything at all to negate it, unless you were already out of her arm's reach. Not even Tager's astral launched a second before Nu's astral could negate it. And we even proved that the only way Hakumen could counter it is if he launches his counter a milisecond before she launches hers.
With Litchi, she's too situational. I need to have played with her against another person at least 2 rounds before she becomes a beast. I could lay a series of combos and rushes down, but they all do measly damage, and if they break out in a way that I can't follow up, I'm screwed. Plus, most of her combo strings require precise analog pushes, to the point where if I accidentally push forward, instead of down-forward, I do a different attack that finishes my combo before it even starts.
I've improved so much, my first time back in Time Attack Mode (the hardest thing in the game, because it is always best of 2, 99 timer, beyond Hell difficulty, and has all 4 Unlimited Boss fights) I actually got all the way up to Unlimited Ragna and bagged one round, except he still beat me. Even Rachel and Nu, the two I got stuck at the most when we were doing this on Kuro's savefile, were easy.

Till Next Time,
~Erisu (Best random comment ever: a black gamer dude who just got his car and his career and was bored in the cafeteria just blurted out that he needs a girlfriend)

[Erisu Kazahana]

Kannazuki no Miko (among other romance stories)
I know, I haven't posted in... forever(2 months). I've been busy between house cleaning, errand runs, reading mangas, and preparing speeches. I've been keeping a 'school' journal to write out my thoughts right before class, during class, and at work. I'll probably upload the stuff onto here when I get the chance after the semester's over.

Anyway, onto the topic of the post! KnM. Word Of Warning: Complete Spoilers.
I absolutely love the way the anime sequence runs. The mixer goes like this: you take a typical 3 way romance, add mechas, then destroy the world, leaving only 2 of those three romantic partners living. The mechas fighting for to rule over the planet is one thing, but having a romance story where the outcome of the lovers affects the mechas, but not in this, "The Power of Love Compels You" BS.
Chikane is a hardcore lover. She rivals Shizuru in their complete adoration of the one they love. Despite both being loved and adored by both men and women, they only love one person in their life, and will do ANYTHING, even destroying the world, just to be with that person. That's, hard true love right there.
Then on the other side, Himeko, is also in love with Chikane. But because she's just an average teenage girl, it's just not right. I love the way the anime captures this. She's confused, she thinks that Chikane loves her like a sister, even though she loves Souma, just because it's normal for a girl and a boy to love each other. Yet, deep inside, she loves another girl. Even though it is their past life that they were once lovers, she feels like she loves Chikane, just because she is Chikane and they had a fated meeting, not because of their past life.
The events were well thought out. First, everyone has their own agenda, kept hidden from each other. Then over the course of the series, we learn that Himeko shows adoration for both Souma and Chikane. We also learn in this time Souma and Chikane's love for Himeko, yet Himeko doesn't realize either of these.
On Chikane's side of the story, her passion for Himeko is prevalent. She loves her scent, her hair, her body, her eyes, her skin, her Himeko. When the maidens learn of their fated past life, she realizes, that all she ever wanted was Himeko's happiness. So she'll do anything to preserve that happiness, even going as far as to erase herself from Himeko's mind, so that she won't be sad that they have to meet such fate again.
Himeko, on the other side, is slow to learn her fate. Her confusion leads her to not believe the truth, and to only seek that happy times. She knows that her happiness lies with staying with Chikane, but at the same time, the closer they get, the more weirder Chikane is towards herself. But her determination to fulfill her role remains steadfast. Even after Chikane rapes her, kills her male lover, destroys the world, and beats her, she feels that the Chikane she knows is just showing this fake mirage just because she cares for her. As much as that sounds VERY stupid, it's another form of true love.
True Love. There is a shell matching game, where everyone is like half of a shell. The goal of this life game is to find your other half, in which only one other shell half can fit. It's like the saying goes: God gave us 2 arms, 2 eyes, 2 legs, 2 lungs, 2 of nearly everything, but he only gave us 1 heart. Why is that? It's because we are destined to seek out our other heart.
For this anime, Chikane and Himeko love each other, despite destiny having to sever their bodies away from each other, for the sake of the world. So Chikane seeks to get Himeko to hate her, so that they don't have to share this fate over and over again, so that neither of them have to cry over and over again. Himeko doesn't like this fate either, but she won't let fate ever separate them. Such is the bond forge by love, unbreakable, even by the mightiest of swords. They were practically made for each other, if they were not, Himeko would have mercilessly killed Chikane at the end.

In the end, I was very very touched to the soul. In my opinion, the fact that the lovers were lesbians, it works better. Because of the taboo, they have to break that barrier as well as their own barriers. Had they been straight, it's like... asking them not to ever have sex. Ever. Lest God smite you for being straight. Frankly, I wouldn't mind if they were gay guys either. But the problem with gay guys is that I wouldn't touch it. Lesbians also work out, because there will be one of them who is bisexual and has a straight relationship with another man. It creates tension and challenges the lesbian's relationship, thus making for a striking story.


Now about the manga... I hate it. Sure, there are more vulgar scenes than in the anime, and they enhance the severity of their relationship... but the rest of the story is... meh. I like how the anime expands more upon it. At least the anime had a good base. Another hate is how the anime didn't expand much upon the Orochi heads. It seemed like they had a good backstory on why they became Orochi heads, but that was like 8 short scenes, 1 for each head. But then again, that would steal away from the main stars: the two Mikos. Their balance is good, but could have been better. 24 episodes, doing a short sidestory of the enemies they face and how they use their abilities to separate the two lovers, isn't that hard. They did it for the nun and the biker dude, why couldn't the defaced pop start, humiliated mangaka, or catnurse person have their own reason why they became heads? Sadly, all I've seen them do is fail to triple team the "Hero" and the "Heroine", they couldn't even get near the "Maiden".

Every time I think about Kannazuki no Miko, it just hurts my heart. It was a very wonderfully told story, with the transition from a light hearted mecha into a dramatic death world, its kept a good pace that makes you think of how both lovers are dealing with the problem.

Till Next Time,
~Erisu (I wouldn't say I'm plagiarizing when I'm making my own lesbian love triangle with mechas in it, I was inspired by KnM. I'll have to make a different backstory and different outcome ^.^).

[Erisu Kazahana]

Feathers of a Blue Fire Bird
So alas, I say farewell to the school year of 2009-2010. I meant to post this farewell at the end of the Spring semester, but I got lazy. At least it will make more sense to put it at the end of Summer, because my work in Palmdale has come to a finale. So lets start with the closing of my job.

As a math tutor (and in the future, teacher), the people I work with will come and go. Each year I will get a new batch of new faces, and at the end of the year I have to bid them a bright future. I wish I didn't have to do this, but I have to bid farewell to my fellow co-workers as well. Many of them are bright students aiming for a future. They are as much students, as they are teachers. Since I didn't get to transfer this year (missing classes, specifically 1 more math and 1 more physics), I have to say farewell to the ones who have graduated and are transferring this year. It was a great year working alongside them, and probably if it weren’t for their styles of tutoring, I probably wouldn’t of had been able to be as good of a tutor as I am now.
This farewell will also go to my Palmdale co-workers, since I will not be working there anymore (moved cities). When I first started working there, in February, Betty was the first one who found me, she was the welcome center’s worker. The learning center hadn’t been finished yet and I sat in the student lounge. It was… quiet. Not dull, but quiet. Over the weeks, more and more staff members came. First the learning specialist, then my supervisor Alyssa, and the desk worker Marcos. The place was quiet, but with the 3 of us (the learning specialist couldn’t come everyday), the place was loud and enjoyable. I averaged 1 tutoring lesson each day I was there. Yes… it was quite slow, but understandable if one realizes that I worked Fridays only, with no math classes on Fridays. There were other people who worked at the Palmdale Learning Center, but they worked mainly during the week when I wasn’t there. Then summer came around. Since I was on the top of my schedule with picking my hours, I got to work more hours. I also wasn’t the only math tutor anymore, which was great. I clocked in when Christian clocked out. Jessica and her boyfriend, Issac, worked the desk more often over my shift than Marcos. I think Marcos clocked out after my first hour during my two days I worked. But anyway, most of my tutoring service was towards Jessica, just because some days were empty. I could so type in something, and it would sound like there was something going on between us @.@. But no, she was a co-worker and a tutee. Besides, her boyfriend worked during the time I tutored her. But yeah, notable mentions of tutees (not mentioning names for confidentiality issues ) (PS: not because I forgot their names!): the girl who took College Algebra (130) and Trigonometry (135) at the same time; the math 70 class, notably 2 girls who came in every time I worked; the woman who took Business Math, who still owes me a box of Reeses for burning my brain out in a 4 hour session; the gamer who took math 130; and the guy from math 102 I think, well anyway, he was in the same class as Chris (Chaos/Negrito), and he really helped me think faster when I tutor. For many of us, most our tutoring hour was spent chatting more than helping. They usually got there hours before class, or just got out of class, so they would want to relieve the stress out. Or so I think, lol. But anyway, I can see why the learning specialist said, “Your tutees will not remember what this, ‘quadratic formula’ or ‘difference of two squares’. They will not remember what you taught them, but how you taught them.” Or something along those lines. The point is, if I ever see any of those people while walking around the streets of Palmdale, we will remember each other as that tutor/tutee from that one time long ago. I will miss the quietness of Palmdale’s Learning Center. Lancaster’s Learning Center is almost always bustling with business, with things to do, people to see. At Palmdale, I can almost slack off whenever I felt like it, especially during super slow days. Ah well, it was a nice vacation, one slow and easy class with one slow and easy job.
And as a final notice, when one of my cafeteria friends found out that I was a math tutor, he said that only nerds and ugly people work as tutors… COUGH COUGH, I beg to differ! *excuse my violate language here (censoring name because of work related protocalls):* **** is one hellova sexy woman! Omg, her curves! All the tutees stare at her when she comes around and leans over. And *****! *howl* Dude, she. Is/was. A. High schooler. With a body! And she got married! I can’t see why not, hot damn! Heck, even ******* has a rack and behind! *whistles* *more excessive sexual behavior talk here about the rest of the female workers* You know, I could get fired for this… But point is, it isn’t just nerds and ugly people who work as tutors. Well… I take back the nerd part, most tutors need to be math wizards to be able to work there.

Saying my farewells to my classes. Starting with Creative Writing. The class has taught me a lot, despite not having an agenda. Not only has it limited my selfcentered rightgeousness, it has taught me to read between the lines. Also, it’s taught me that English majors cannot be writers. Why? Because they are so full of ancient writings, they can’t use their imagination to create new writings. Instead, they make remakes of Shakespear, only using more Shakespear language! Sure, I may have tried to mix Victorian language with present day language. But taking a format and reusing the format and thinking it’s new? No. Some people did point out that my awkward idea is out there, probably too far out there, but it is something new. I’ve also learned one life lesson from the class. The world today is a crapsack world. I found that escapism by means of writing and drawing have gotten me this far in the world. Although the world is deep in the grim darkness of despair, I still hold a tiny beacon of hope. Not just me, but other artists as well. I guess that’s why I can stay pretty positive, despite getting smacked with dreadful news nowadays.
My math class. I will definitely miss it. 3 semesters of Calculus with Tran? Epic. I usually sleep in math classes, but this class woke me up. Reason one: Tran makes mistakes. Mistakes means extra credit. But also, mistakes too early before the next test means harder quizzes. It wakes the class to make sure he’s not teaching the wrong thing. This one time, in Tran’s Class, he made an error by writing y in the equation when it should have been x. And then, we spent half an hour trying to figure out why we were looping and getting into super higher math stuff. After finding the problem, we spent a quarter of an hour doing the right equation. Reason two: Nelson. This guy, makes me stay up late nights to listen to his jokes. This guy, made so many muscle jokes. This one time, in Tran’s Class, we were learning about the center of mass, where the shape can turn and stuff. And nelson pumped his muscles and was like, ‘here *pointing at one of his muscles* is my center of mass’. This guy, couldn’t wait for Left4Dead2/Modern Warfare 2/Starcraft 2. This guy, made ‘Mr. Scrooge, it’s Christmas Eve’ jokes every time a quiz/test was coming up. This guy, made so many videogame references. This one time, in Tran’s Class, we were taking a test, and he was like, ‘UAVs online guys’. This guy, was the one who started up all the ‘This guy’ sayings. Reason three: Tran jokes. But sadly, he was told by legal attorneys to stop his jokes during the third semester. Anyway, his jokes were very racist, sexual, and sometimes just flat stupid. But they made the class bearable. Some punchlines include: “Florida Keys” “Hooters in China” “Fruit Jews” “Rice = Constipation” and many more. He would always pull a joke when he felt the class was falling asleep, such a nice guy. Reason four: the class. The first semester, the class was kinda, all over the place. We were separated into groups for our group projects, and we got to know our groups well. Towards the end of the Summer semester, the groups started converging and we got to know each other pretty well for a class. Then the Fall semester came in, and half the class moved to a different Calculus class. But for us who stayed with Tran, we took the majority of the class. We initiated the newcomers and when group projects came around, it wasn’t just a 4-man group project anymore, it was a class effort. Sadly, only half of the Fall semester continued into the Spring semester. But, again, we made it a class effort to pass. Sure, the groups were prevalent, but when one group got the answer to one question, text messages and emails were sent to the rest of the groups. That dedication of teamwork for 3 semesters, could only have come from a fateful joining of a class.

My computer class; was quiet, easy, and fast. It was the only reason I was forced to wake up early for. With C programming under my belt, Java was just cakewalk. Each test, I was late for at least 5 minutes and was out the door by 15 minutes after arriving. Complete truth be told, I could have sworn Mark and Brian were just ditching class because they were trying to skip the morning quizzes… I didn’t know they dropped until after the final. Not much I’m going to miss there, except Mummaw, the teacher. But I think I’ll be seeing him this coming Spring semester again…

Communications over Summer semester. So much information to absorb… So much diversity. On the outside, the class just seems like a majority female class. But when you learn about each person, everyone has something different to bring to the table. I was –stupidly– expecting that I would be hearing about women issues. But I was so far wrong. One lady was a massage therapist and talked about how over half the massage parlors in the Antelope Valley were fake and fronts for prostitution. There was a quiet girl, and she was a complete animal lover. A bookstore manager was part of the class, and she talked about what goes on with the school bookstore, which is nothing bad, but people think it is. There was an insurance worker and housewife, who inspired me to focus on my objectives, but she really gave those ‘think about the children’ speeches. Then there was the newly wed, who hated raves and thought deeper about music. There were these two women who surpassed their drug addictions. There was a, once homeless, woman, who was an excellent and practiced speaker. There was a girl who graduated recently, probably a little before me, and she talked about issues that related to the growing teenagers. Then there was that black guy. Oh man can I talk about him, Davion. He ‘looks’ like a gangster black man, he somewhat acts like one. But when you get to know him better and hear his speeches, he’s actually a nerd. He is for teaching today’s youth about the values of life and how to not get into bad situations (drug addictions, drinking addictions, joining gangs, etc). He was as much an awesome speaker as he was an audience member. Then there was the quiet guy in the front of the class. Even though he didn’t give any ‘life changing’ speeches, everyone in class could see how he improved from giving such a bad speech to giving a good one. There was the other quiet guy, but I think it would be better to classify him as the joker. He gave a speech about a duck song, a speech about walking, and a speech about folding paper planes. Then there was Chomda, from Africa, who joined the Navy and traveled the world. And finally, there was me, the Asian Guru (as my teacher dubbed me). Out of the 2 impromptus, the reading, the soap box, the demonstrative, and the persuasive speeches, I did not talk about Japan in 2 of them (one impromptu about dogs, and one /bad/ soap box about video games). And all the times I talked about Japan (except for the second impromptu), I donned my kimono. I will selfishly think I had a great impact on the class, because I spoke from the soul. Aside from the common nervous signs of shaky legs, loss of breath, dry mouth, and others, I felt emotional when I spoke. Sometimes, I felt like I was going to burst into tears because of how dramatic I made the topic sound. Although, I do have to give the great impact up to Chomda’s speech about children. He also spoke from the heart, and his dramatic pauses just hammered the words into our hearts.
Altogether, the class was very fun and very educational. My teacher was a Russian born in East LA. He grew up speaking Spanish and Russian, and only mastered English when he got into college (he struggled through elementary/high school). He owns a farm just on the outskirts of the AV and is just flat awesome.

For the transferees. I’ll miss them. The cafeteria folk who really lived up the atmosphere. The ones who transferred to AVC from other colleges. The student workers, who were very helpful. And just flat out, all of them who are transferring. Kinda feels weird, I didn’t really miss a lot of people during the end of my first year of being in college. I guess it’s cause I expanded my boundaries vastly over the second year of being here.


And that about does it for all the grim farewells. I would like to mention my vagabond self. As I’ve wrote, many times over, I was once in Japan. Before that, though, I was in San Francisco. Born there, raised there for 6 years. Then we moved overseas to Atsugi Base, Japan. An air force base smack in the middle of a random area around Tokyo. Awkwardly, Atsugi City was like a city or two away from Atsugi Base. Spent a good 6 years there. Shirley Lanham Elementary School holds my childhood school memories. Ah, the good memories of my Japanese Culture Classes. There were 2 Japanese teachers. During one year, one of them got married and moved away. She came back the next year to tell us all about her new life. I can’t remember correctly, but I remember either the other teacher or the other new one (so a third Japanese teacher) was somewhat mean… I almost promised that I would be able to graduate from there, but that promise was broken. I moved to Negishi Base, which neighbored Yokohama. I graduated from Richard Byrd Elementary School. That school basically has 1 teacher for each grade and a few extra for other classes. The mean teacher I talked about transferred over to this school when I transferred here. I remember talking behind her back, telling the other students that she was a meanie. But over the year, I found that she was actually a nice person. I graduated elementary school and went to middle school at Yokosuka Base: Yokosuka Middle School. We were placed into teams. 6th Graders got weird team names, one of them was Samurai. 7th Graders had Tora/orange tigers vs Gojila/(my teachers joked too much and wouldn’t reveal what their mascot was)blue whales vs the newly formed Kuma/brown bears. I’ll get to 8th Graders when I get there. The rivalry between Tora and Gojila can be compared to Griffindor and Slitheran. Kuma… was kinda just out there, neutral. What made this rivalry awesome was, not only were the students separated, but the teachers as well. Each Team had 1 math, 1 science, 1 english, and 1 social studies teacher. Each student would go to all 4 of those classes, going to one of them one more time because it was their homeroom teacher. The extracurricular classes were considered neutral grounds, because students from each team would end up in those classes. There was 4 periods per day, 8 total classes everyone went to. This was sorted out by A day and B day. If I recall, lunchtime was also a neutral grounds thing. It was because each grade had their own lunch time. For us Toras and Gojilas, we had to cross the street to get to the cafeteria, but rarely did my friends and I ate indoors. Kuma was lucky to share a building with the high schoolers, so they just had to go downstairs to get to the cafeteria. Oh mentioning the fact that the high school grounds were where the cafeteria was at. The middle school classrooms were across the street facing the football field. I donno what happened with the team spirit, but Team Tora lost horribly in the end-of-the-school-year games. It was still a fun year and I made very close friends. Then I get into 8th Grade. By the time of the end-of-the-school-year games, I had moved to Yokosuka Base, almost neighboring the middle school. But, it was just a temporary building. The new middle school had a floor plan much like a Japanese school. 6th Grade classrooms on the bottom, 7th Grade classrooms on the second floor, and 8th Grade classrooms on the top floor. The floor plan also made it so that each team had their own sector. For the 6th and 7th graders, which I didn’t really get to see much, their divisions were kinda small. But for the 8th graders… You have Team Chikara/blue vs Team Kokoro/red and the hallways were almost color coded with which team the classroom belonged to. You would probably guess that I was part of Team Chikara (which I really wish I was… sometimes), but I was part of Team Kokoro and we took the eastern side of the top floor. The exit was on the western side though… and if felt like walking into enemy territory to walk through the blue lined hallway. Sadly, I did not make it to the end-of-the-year games, so I don’t know if my team won or not. The reason why I say I sometimes wish I was on Team Chikara was because of my friends. More than half of Team Tora migrated to Team Kokoro. I really only knew a few people on Team Chikara, one namely Miguel. But on Team Kokoro, we had my gang from Team Tora: Travis, his g/f, Joe, his g/f/my crush Kristle, Kevin, Raphael/my cousin. Then we had my friends from Atsugi Base who transferred to Yokosuka Base: Shin and one of the Paranel boys. And finally the ones from Team Kuma: Marty and his gang, this one gay dude, and Darren. Some of the more cuter girls were also in Team Kokoro. But anyway, if I had been on Team Chikara, I probably woulda lost more friends than made.

I miss the good old days….. But apparently, I’m not old yet. I’ve been told so many countless times that I’m still young. I have all these memories, yet I’m still young. To me, I felt like I’ve died inside and have been resurrected into a new person several times. Between the moving from California to Atsugi, from Atsugi to Negishi, from Negishi to Yokosuka, from Yokosuka to Palmdale, and finally from Palmdale to Lancaster. Each place I’ve been to, I’ve been different. I really don’t know how I acted when I was in California before. But in Atsugi, I felt like a Japanese kid who wanted to be American. In Negishi, I became very serious (and sensitive) and took up part time jobs. In Yokosuka, I felt the need to fit in, to explore more, which is something I never did at the previous bases. In Palmdale… I guess I was very much in culture shock. I had never known that in America, there were people who wanted to be in Japan. I really couldn’t fit in. I still can’t fit in.
Sure, people have praised me for being a great fighter in Mock Swordfighting. But still, I felt more or less like a ghost or a shadow. Truth be told, I felt like I was a shadow to Juan (of all people). Why? Because when all of us were once newbies, I had the fighting spirit of a second year. During basics training, Pick and I went ballistic and were yelled at by the higher ups. During one of the first free for alls, I struck down one of the higher ups 7 times before losing a leg and then losing altogether. BUT. I can still remember the pains of being hidden in the shadow. I remember some of the focal points of basic training. Juan sucked. He got all the attention of the higher ups and was trained. I remember how all the higher ups used him as a test dummy for practice. Then we get to some serious training. I still fare better than my colleges, but still not acknowledged. Juan and the others were always in the spotlight. Everyone talked about how this guy did this, that guy’s skills were like that, etc etc. I don’t think I was the only one who was in the shadows though, but I was more deeper… There was a girl whose first and last year in mock was at that time as well… But she got more attention than I did, more or less because she was in the same year as the higher ups… But anyway… the second year. I was pushed and pulled around. I followed whoever was in charge, for the first semester at least. When leadership was lost/changed, I was still pushed and pulled around. I tried to make a name for myself, but others took the initiative before I did. With me in the sidelines, anything I say was only pushed out of the mouths of whoever rose to power. Hans, was the only person who acknowledged my presence and placed me in a position that I claimed I rightfully deserved. But, because of Hans’… issues… my power meant jack shit. Sure, I helped hold everything together with Tony, but Tony took all the glory, much like everyone else who used my knowledge. Then the third year. Glory hogs claim they singlehandedly stabilized mock. Only my personal retinue of helpers and allies know the full truth. But we are silenced by these glory hogs. So to sum it all up: I CAN WEAR A BRIGHT AND SHINY GOLDEN DRESS AND STILL NOT BE SEEN. If that isn’t living in the shadows, I don’t know what kind of phenomenon that is… The fourth year finally shuts me up for good though. I was helped by a great many to get my name imprinted into the club, but it was all in vain. The new leaders were in civil turmoil and some failed to even recognize help when they needed it. Again, cast into the shadows, I can’t do much. Not with 4 different leaders saying different things and accusing other leaders of stupidity and betrayal to the club. Just. Utter turmoil.
So after realizing all of this, I’ve found that I’ve really been nothing but a shadow in the background of other people’s lives, still in culture shock. I may have been recognized by many, but I really didn’t make a name for myself. I may have left a legacy, but it’s just a shallow one, if best.

At least the future is bright. Even though, I have not left a legacy behind, I have a legacy to look forward to. A math teacher by day, a third party video game developer by night. And if I were to have all my dreams but one come true before I die, I would like to hope my final dream is to leave a lasting legacy.

If you had read all of this, without skipping, I would like to thank you for listening to my feelings. It means a lot to me to know that I may be understood someday.

Till Next Time,
~Erisu Uzumaki Kazahana (I will post another rant soon after this, watch me lol)

[Erisu Kazahana]

The Archive of Xanga (or better yet: RMD's Grimoire)
So, I decided not to lose any memories and copied every entry from RMD's Grimoire. While archiving them, I read a few. I posted the most striking ones up on my Facebook. I've found that every year, I'm a different person. In 2003, I was gangsta, with ghetto typing. 2004 was no better. In 2005, I was such a nerd, it's unbelievable... 2006, I started to really turn it into a diary, complete with multiple personality disorder. 2007, I clear my head of the personallity disorder. 2008, the most diverse posting I've done. 2009, I switch over to here.

I'll pull an old self trick and say, "I'll get to this later."

Till Next Time,
~Erisu Uzumaki Kazahana (next time will be a different topic though lol. I just wanted to talk about what I did after my last post)

[Erisu Kazahana]

3rd Year, 1st Week
I am now in my third year of college. As much as I’d love to rush through my education, get a career, and burn my current life now… I’m not. I’ve kept a small balance between my classes and my lifestyle over the last two years, I’ve ‘technically’ finished already, but I’m missing at least two courses that I couldn’t take due to time restraints with the other classes I took. At least I live near the college now, I can walk at sunrise and night, instead of timing it so that I can arrive at sunrise and I have to leave long before sunset.
So anyway, here’s how my ‘detailed’ schedule goes…
Monday
6:00 – wake up and get ready
7:00 – out the door, walk to school
8:00 – start working
1:00 – math 102 group tutoring session
2:00 – prepare for class
3:00 – tutoring class
5:00 – downtime
7:00 – latin class
10:00 – heading home by any means possible
12:00 – sleep
Tuesday
6:00 – wake up and get ready
8:00 – out the door, walk to school
10:00 – mom in class, tutor brother
12:00 – mom out of class
3:00 – prepare for class
5:00 – linear algebra class
7:00 – out of one class into computer math class
10:00 – heading home
12:00 – sleep
Wednesday
6:00 – wake up and get ready
7:00 – out the door, walk to school
8:00 – start working
2:00 – prepare for class
3:00 – tutoring class
5:00 – downtime
7:00 – latin class
10:00 – heading home by any means possible
12:00 – sleep
Thursday
6:00 – wake up and get ready
8:00 – out the door, walk to school
10:00 – mom in class, tutor brother
12:00 – mom out of class
3:00 – prepare for class
5:00 – linear algebra class
7:00 – downtime
10:00 – heading home by any means possible
12:00 – sleep
Friday
5:00 – wake up and get ready
6:00 – out the door, walk to school
7:45 – -Mac- Digital Media class
12:00 – out of one class, into the computer lab
3:00 – out of computer lab, downtime
10:00 – heading home by any means possible
12:00 – sleep
Saturday
5:00 – wake up and get ready
7:00 – out the door, walk to school
8:00 – mom in class, babysit in the empty cafeteria
12:00 – mom out of class, errand run
10:00 – heading home by any means possible
12:00 – sleep
Sunday
Sleep

As you can see, there is a slight pattern here… I’m never home =.=. Oh well, that’s college for you.
As for explaining my hecktic first week. The first day, I joined the math 99 orientation. Math 99 is like home schooling, except for math and in college. There were 2 new tutors alongside me working the first 2 hours of the semester, and we were supposed to be working only 2 hours helping out with filing the new student records. After all the filing was done, our supervisor asked which one of us will stay behind to wait for the usual desk assistant. I called out, “Not me,” and started to walk away. But the new tutors ran past me and clocked out before I could, and I was stuck in a position I never was trained in. But, my supervisor helped out, and I can see how being a desk clerk is really stressful =.=;. At least I didn’t get any angry customers, but remembering what to say and what to do and doing them stacks that stress anyway. I think I worked overtime by 2 hours… Idonno, it was fun nevertheless . In the cafeteria, where I usually see everybody, I saw… everybody! I even got to see Jamacia again, after he went AWOL near the end of Spring. I asked him when his next class was, and he said it was at 7pm. But, mine was at 3:45, so I went to class first. I met with a tutor I worked with over summer; he was also taking the same class. Made me feel less nervous to be in the class. My first impression… was that a handful of the people in that class signed up for the wrong thing. It’s called “Introduction to Tutoring,” which could have been misinterpreted as, “My First Year Being Tutored.” I didn’t want to be mean though… Anyway, it turned out that 4 of us were already tutors, and the instructor was supposed to have been my supervisor on the Wednesdays that I never showed up on over summer. After that class was over, I really had nothing to do, so I escorted Jamacia to his class. He told me on the way that it was Latin, and I asked if Ruckman was teaching it. It was so, so I decided to crash it randomly. When the class was filled up, 3 girls went up to him and asked about a crash list. I got up and lined myself behind them to get the instructor’s attention as well. He was surprised to see me again, and even more surprised that I was crashing and didn’t register ahead of time. When everyone sat back down, he got out the crash list and told the crashers to sign in, in order of who asked. Then he was about to pass it to me, when the first girl said that she was first. I truthfully signed 4th. When the instructor noticed, he whispered that if he had known I was a crasher, he would have let me in first. But pretty much, I Randomly crashed a Random course and Randomly succeeded ^.^.
Tuesday, my mom’s first day (3rd semester roughly). Because my brother is a home schooler, and my sister isn’t in school yet, we had to bring them along. While my mom was in class, my sister played Magic with the rest of us. It was a 6-way battle, starting with AJ, then my sister, then Batman, then this other guy, then me, then Ace. Towards the end of the game, my sister had uber creatures, Batman was amassing Slivers, the other guy was failing (mana drought: didn’t draw mana for 10 turns at least), I had a creature leveling up silently, Ace was amassing 20 squirrels, and AJ was countering Ace. Then, my sister started a zergling rush towards AJ, which everyone else followed through. It ended with my sister dealing the last blow, after AJ’s turn. Then, the other guy had to go to crash a class, so Ace got 60+ squirrels and forest walked everybody. Except for me, I had Palace Guard block all 20 squirrels towards my field. But we just ended it there, cause everyone had something important to do. After showing my mom around campus a bit, she had to go. So I stayed in the cafeteria with Wolf. He decided randomly to hold a tea party, because he had a coffee mug that was big enough to look like a giant tea cup. I joined in the conversation and managed to become co-co-host of the Alice in Wonderland themed tea party… And my character was Alice… I signed up to be her shadow, just so that I can be random, but because there was no Alice, I had to be Alice. After all that excitement, Wolf and I took up a hobby of mentally torturing freshmen to the college. We started with this one chick, who got up and walked away after several questions. Then it went to some random dude, then Bob, then Bob’s friend. It was all fun and horrific XD. Afterwards, I had to ditch to get into Linear Algebra, the class I dropped last semester. It’s funny, I promised Anderson, the math instructor who was taking the class last semester, that I would pass and be an adjoint to her class, so that I can ‘tutor’ the others. By ‘tutor’ I mean, laugh and make life miserable for the freshies. But that plan failed and now I’m sitting in her class as a regular student, suffering the piles of homework =.=;;. Well, it started bad: I was nearly late, so I ran into the closest classroom. I was wondering why crashers were lined along the wall and why I didn’t see Blanca, Robin, or anyone else I knew who is taking the class. Also, I was wondering why there was a different teacher… a substitute on the first day? I checked my schedule to see that I failed and was one room off… The class wasn’t half bad though, I now understand was Linear Algebra is: it’s not a mechanical mathematics like regular Algebra or Calculus, it’s an abstract art that follows ‘general rules’ rather than ‘strict rules’ that regular Algebra forces you to remember. In a sense, it’s a logic class. In that class are: Robin, Aung, Joey, some girl from Calculus 3, Tyler/a tutor, and Blanca. I’m so not alone in there. Robin and I have to run from that class into our next one. When we got to the third floor where the class was at, we ran down the hallway past Finch. Robin told me that the classroom was 318 or something... But we took a turn down the hall, and basically ran in a circle, looking for an imaginary room. We went backwards and I asked Finch what class he was taking, and it turns out that he was in the same class as us: Computer Mathematics. Also in that class: Jovante and this one guy from my previous CIS class. The class ended up being another Linear Algebra lesson… Basically, Computer Mathematics isn’t about the mechanics of math or computers, but how they process the math and logarithms and whatnots. 3 whole hours… I’m glad that the plan was that Robin would take me home after that class every night.
Wednesday. So I was late to work today, by nearly 15 mins. But nothing was happening anyway, more processing of paperwork. Chom is back, which made me glad. She’s one of the veteran tutors and probably is one of the more educated one, next to Tucker and Tyler, who also stayed behind instead of transferring like all the others. I met another new tutor today. The tutoring team was basically, Chom, me, and the 2 newbies, one from Monday. As a veteran, I told my experiences and gave them heads up on how to tutor. I also had to tell them to ease it a little, because their nervousness was showing. I was nervous too, but after helping the first student, I was as calm as before. Heck, the quick lessons from Tutoring Class really helped out. I remember what the instructor said: “Your job is to work yourself out of a job, that’s the job of a tutor.” So I did as I was trained to do: not give the answers and help the tutee understand the question and how to find the answer himself. Then, I had to help a SOAR student, which is basically a high schooler in college. It was kinda too bad that I couldn’t help him outside of my first week’s hours… But again, lessons learned, lessons taught. After my work, I sat around the cafeteria as normal, saw Tapa again, that was fun. And then I quietly excused myself into my Tutoring Class. I thought it would have been a good idea to sit next to Christian in the front of the classroom… No, never again. I sat directly in front of the instructor. I couldn’t tell time, and I was so nervous, I shut my motions off just so that I can listen, look like I’m listening, and act like I’m listening, while I’m listening. When everyone was packing, I really was surprised… Never again, I will not sit in the front of a classroom. That night was interesting… So, I’m hanging with Stalker-Andrea and the few people left in the Cafeteria. Then, Blanca comes around and says she knows Stalker-Andrea, cause they are in the same class: Calc 3. I ask if I can get a ride after my class, but theirs ends half an hour before mine should. I asked around and found that someone else had a class that ended at 10 as well. So I traded numbers so that I can text to see who is the unfortunate one to drop me off before they get home. In Latin, it turns out that 2 of the crashers are completely in, 1 is almost in, and there is a possibility that I’m confirmed to be in. My old teacher is dedicated to trying to get me in ^.^. Yes, I did take his class for two years in High School. He knows that I’ll be an angel in his class. Class ended half an hour early. So I wandered around campus trying to find out where Tran’s Calculus 3 class could be. I found it to be on the other side of the classroom I went to when I took his class. I snuck in like a ninja and he was surprised. It was fun. When he did his “Bonjoua” thingy, the class failed more than 3 times, maybe even more if I wasn’t there. I was the one who hushed the rest of them. After their class, I saw that Jovante and Aung was also in the class. I talked with Tran and asked to be able to go into this office hours, so I can see my final grade.
Thursday. We cooked pizza the night before and froze it to be able to carry it with us this day. When we got on campus, we just had to reheat it and we had instant breakfast/lunch/dinner. My mom was back and forth between class, library, and cafeteria. I told her that I needed to see my teacher and that I had to get my homework done. So, I did the first thing and saw my grade. I got a D on my final, yet I passed with a B. I did find that a lot of the minuses were because of simple algebraic errors. Then, there were the huge mistakes on Parametric Equations… the lesson I failed in Calculus 2 haunted me in Calculus 3… My teacher was disappointed, but I ensured him that I will change my ways and focus my studies. I was amazed though; his office is packed with books, notes, previous class tests, etc etc. It’s like, you only get to see that kind of office in the movies… I’ve been in his office three times, but this third time, I really did feel amazed that in the future, I’d have to keep a record like that. I can’t just use my head to hold all the information I know, I have to keep physical records and whatnots. After bidding farewell and promising to harass his class at night, I went to do a quick half hour session of homework and then class. Some dude in class got caught sleeping. The instructor knocked on his table and told him to either: wake up, stand in the back of the class, or get out. I was lucky, I dozed off from time to time, because it was a review of stuff I’ve already mastered, and the projector head blocked her field of sight to me. The most interesting thing I heard her explain was how to multiply matrices: the left box is a building, and the right box is a tower of ACs. The ACs were tossed onto the roof of the left box and they crash into the ceiling. The people inside panic and run into the elevators to the far right. Then the ACs crash through the next floor and the next floor panics and runs to the elevators. Etc Etc. Then the next tower of ACs are shot into the air and crash into the building. Again, the people panic and run, but because the first elevator is taken, they run into the next. Repeat with the rest of the floors and ACs. Interesting concept, it’ll help me remember, even though I will repeat “Roman Columns” and “First Row by First Column, First Row by Second Column, etc etc.” No PC math, but I was intercepted by a running sister. I was kinda afraid to ask Robin to take my family home, so I asked Blanca instead. Because of that, my mom has a ride home on Tuesdays, while I ride home with Robin later in the night.
Friday, PC class. Or so I thought… my computer class is teaching us how to use *shudder* a Mac. It was weird to use at first, because the mouse had 3 buttons: 1 small, hard to find ‘right click’; a ‘center click’; and everything else was ‘left click’. Also, I came to a stupid realization that Photoshop is /literally/ meant for changing photos. I can possibly do some artwork on there, but I’d have more success working on pixel art. Anyway, -PC-Mac class would have been boring if I didn’t know anyone in there. Heck, the reason why I signed up was just because Batman was in there.
Saturday, my mom has class, and I’m her escort. It’s… too quiet…
Sunday=sleep in.

And that’s a summary of my first week of Fall 2010 classes.

Till Next Time,
~Guy (the new nickname is because some of my tutees can’t remember my name and just call me Guy, thus I am Guy)

[Erisu Kazahana]

Week Two.
So I lied about taking it easy this semester >.>. I have 18.5 units, which is about 20 hours of being in a classroom. Then I have to have a "for every 1 hour of class, I must have 2 hours of out of class study", which is 40 hours. I also have 12 hours of work. So let's do some math~
A week of school for me is Mon through Sat, so that's 24hours x 6days = 144 hours
I sleep Midnight at the start of the day until 6 in the morning: 6x6=36 hours of sleep, 108 hours
Classes take up 20 hours, 88 hours
"Study Time" takes up 40 hours, 48 hours. Trust me, I desperately need those dedicated hours to even /finish/ my homework, let alone attempt to start studying
12 hours of work = 36 hours
It takes me an hour to commute to and from school, 2x6=12, 14 hours
Saturday is reserved for errand runs, which is about 12 to 6, 8 hours
I need an hour to prepare my breakfast/lunch/dinner each morning, 2 hours.
I have only 2 'spare' hours, that more likely than less are the minutes I spend getting between places or waiting for something.
This is too much...


I've come to a realization: Modesty must be a sin or a punishment. You lost much to gain little to nothing in return. Whatever material goods or knowledge you pass on to someone, and the only thing you get in return is just a thanks. It gives you that warm feeling inside to receive a thanks, but will that warm feeling earn you any monetary gain? Will it feed you? Will it help you in the future? How about now? Of course not! What's worse is if they keep coming back to you for your assistance and take more from you. And if you fall off track from modesty, you are forever torn from the road of modesty and sent into a spiraling disaster of doom.

Note, I am not saying this at any of my tutees. The tutoring service is a paid job and it is my duty as a tutor to provide tutoring service to those in need.


Something else that I've noticed: Sex before marriage, it really does cause alot of shit. I was told by a 'wise' man to hold onto my virginity, because the moment you lose it, you crave the sex. And it does bad if you're in a relationship and you can't hold it in and just /have/ to have another man/woman. Sadly, I've seen the change happen. It really does make me not want to ever be in a sexual relationship with another person, just for the sole fact that I don't want to break hearts and bodies.
Another thing I've noticed is that a man only wants to get into a woman's pants, not her heart. Yet the opposite is true for a woman: she wants him to be in her heart, not her pants. And once the goal of sex has been achieved, then the man abandons the woman and finds another woman to go. Pride points for spoiling virgins.
It is possibly true in the reverse role, but it's very uncommon. I found that some girls love the drama caused by a man screwing around and having multiple girlfriends, because they can make fun of the girls he gets dumped by or dumps.
This is all opinionated though... but it really makes me think more than four times about relationships. As I've read somewhere, "being known as 'so-and-so's EX' is such a horrible title.' I'm so picky, yet so envious, that I really want my relationship with another woman to be my first, only, and last.
But alas, it may just be a fading dream...


Another thing about modesty, while it's on the top of my head. I'm such a side character to everyone's lives, it's pretty retarded. I try not to be a spotlight hog, but I do try to make my presence known. But some people are just such glory hogs... They practically use me to show that they are better. And if not use me, they try to get useful information or set me up so that I can bridge their path to someone else. Really now, I should stop being so open and enclose myself back to my tiny group again...


But this is all depression talk, I'm actually more happier than I've been in High School. All this thinking really has made me delve deeper into thinking, instead of having these thoughts choke me from within.


Till Next Time,
~EUK (Erisu Uzumaki Kazahana, the one, the only)

[Erisu Kazahana]

ZOMBEI
So for the past week, I haven't been sleeping much. I would get home towards midnight, sleep at 3, wake up 5 in the morning just to roll around in bed till 8, then run to school. My horrid sleep habit put me in a zombiefied state (minus the hunger status). I had slightly black rings around my eyes, bloodshot eyes, nodding every few seconds, not hearing every other word, dropping my pencil halfway through writing every thing, slurring my speech, and just flat falling asleep with my eyes open. Eventually, I hope to break this habit before the end of the school semester, otherwise, I'mma fail all my classes. As if dropping the Logic/Computer Math class wasn't bad enough...

In mai latin class, I've learned that Eris is the goddess of discord. In Dorohedoro, Risu is a dude who was decapitated and brought back to life using magic. Interesting things to learn about a name I completely BS made up...

Till Next Time,
~Erisu (Goddess of Discord)

[Erisu Kazahana]

My life on Facebook
So, I haven't been updating here as much as I wanted too. It's because I've been too busy with life. Alot of people that know me will say "yeah, busy playing video games/card games/facebook." But sadly, it's not because of my entertainment life. If I had to average out what I was doing most of the week during these last 2 months, it was: 35% work, 35% school, 20% fooling around studying in the cafeteria, and 10% walking/errand runs. So the most entertainment I've had is either drawing on the side (like when there's literally no work to be done, not when there's a possibility of work) or card games in the cafeteria. I hate spending only half an hour every 2 days on a video game, that just makes me lose track of what I was doing in-game.
Excuses, excuses; when's an excuse not an excuse?

I won't abandon my random excuses of a journal online, just because I haz Facebook. I'll come back here monthly, whenever I can, just to pour whatever thoughts I can't just publicize too openly.

The year is about to come to a close. It's a time to remember the year, and how it passed. This year, we finally left Palmdale and moved into Lancaster. We're still in the same area, but we've moved cities. I've also started MtG this year. Within one year, my collection is equal to my pokemon collection... I've learned to be less shy, I'm now slightly more comfortable meeting new people. I've learned to budget the crud out of little money, making each cent count towards the month. This past semester, I've finally learned how to use photoshop and illustrator.
But with gain, there is loss. I've lost contact with some-to-most of my friends back in Palmdale. The stress from overworking and schooling has made me lazy when I get home.


It's kinda strange, I'm starting to have flashbacks of being in Japan. I pass by some restaurants and remember Japanese restaurants I used to pass by. I see some sights and am reminded of sights that I've seen back in Japan. There have been other incidents where I just stare out into space, just to remember past times. Heck I remember 10 years ago, after new years, I stared up at the sky with my friend and noticed that the moon had a ring around it. Memories...

Something I hate about Japan fanatics though... like this one specific Japanese guy on campus. He talks all big and mighty about the policies of Japan and how he's going to be there soon. Why isn't he there then? I've actually kept my history of Japan away from many people. I've done so well to keep it hidden, I forget that I haven't told them I've lived there 9 years. To me, that past is what has made me who I am. But for those american otaku and weeaboos, they live such an obsessive fake life of /trying/ to be Japanese. I can brag (to myself) that I don't 'try' to be Japanese. If people see that I'm trying, that's just me being me. It's like asking a Spanish speaker to not speak Spanish for the rest of their life; it's possible, but they'll slip every once in awhile. All in all, I've learned that people's personalities reflect where they were raised. Meh, something to keep me thinking... I'll expand later on this.


Compiled Boredom is not dead, I've just been too busy to update. Also, I still need something to actually program the game with. I think I may just go back to RPG Toolkit, seeing how I managed to get a game running on that once. I was seeking alternatives though...

Last words for 2010?
Till Next Time!
~Erisu Uzumaki Kazahana.

[Erisu Kazahana]

Year of the Rabbit.
Off to a rough start... New Years Eve, I ate and drank nothing but sugar. 2 liters of Sweet Ice Tea, a half dozen fudge chocolate chip cookies, a quarter of a cheesecake, some fudge brownies, and spaghetti (not exactly chocolate, but it was the only non-super sugary food I ate that day). Then the next day, I felt very ill and started throwing up and having diarrhea. I got better... after the snow started falling and the first day of the intersession was canceled. I couldn't get to enjoy it this year TT.TT.
I got lazy after Fall semester ended, so I didn't go out every day like I used to. My lazyness caught up with me and now I can't walk my typical 2 mile walk without feeling very tired. Might be because I haven't been eating as much as I used too as well... or possibly my vampiric sleeping habits -,-. Whatever the case is, I have 5 weeks of daily morning walks to and from school to warm my body up for the upcoming Spring semester. But geez... my muscles, they're feeling heavier than they used to!
Another negative part of this year, I've hit my limit at attending my local college. I didn't read all the fine text and I was sent an email saying that I'm not getting financial aid this semester because I've already attempted more than 80 units, which is the maximum amount of units they're willing to support. I am now at attempting 100 units... yeah... I have to find a different way to pay for my upcoming 5 classes worth of textbooks soon. Kinda sucks too, if I had known that this was going to happen, I would have spread my classes more thinly rather than bunch them every once in awhile. I could have possibly made it with at least enough to pay for half the textbooks this semester if I did it that way. Whatever, I have gotten away with Calculus without the textbook, I think I can get past these courses without their textbooks.



Now out of the blues. I'm planning on having the PCBN (Project Compiled Boredom Newsletter) up and running with a team instead of flying solo. The Halo MtG project was worked on by at least 9 members and we have gotten up to 420 cards. If PCBN gets worked on by at least 5 members, we should be able to have a monthly way to keep our minds active and our game developing skills sharpened. Sure we can't really disclose all the programming data, but at least we sort ourselves out and have everything on schedules.
Sadly, I do not Adobe Indesign just yet, so the January Issue of PCBN won't be released. Also, I didn't have any articles written out so I'll use the month to work on February's Issue.


Till Next Time
~AoiS (Meh, short welcome to the new year)

[Erisu Kazahana]

Halo Fanatic
So I kinda recently discovered that I am a Halo fanatic. It just felt natural for me to play the Halo series and read the background story and delve into it. At very least I don't brag about the Halo series being the 'ultimate' game series in the universe. I believe that Halo has the same success story as Touhou, except the creators and their partners decided to kick it up a notch.
I started Halo when Halo 2 was released. I didn't care for it when it was launched with the Xbox, heck I didn't even care much for the Xbox when it was launched. I think I did try the Xbox a few times and played Halo 1, but I also played Medal of Honor at the time, and MoH got my attention more. I think it was around the time Halo 2 was nearly being released was when I became interested in it. It was probably because of Moreno, I can't remember. I just remember that I really really wanted to play it, I bought the game the day it was released (not the morning, I was not that fanatical) and I got an Xbox nearly 2 months later.
But as I was saying, it had the same success story as Touhou: Although the game is great and all for its genre, it's the /fans/ that made it possible. Had only a thousand people picked up Halo 2 and played matchmaking, it would have sucked. But millions of people picked it up and played together. Eventually, matchmaking would have gotten boring, regardless of thousands or millions of people played. So to counter it, many of us decided to make our own game variants. Zombies, Cops and Robbers, Race, Tower of Power, Jumping Lemmings (My epic phail custom variant where the point was to have the most negative points possible. Made better on maps where you had to really think of a way, other than jumping to your death, to commit suicide before 'hunters' got you). Those 'custom games' made Halo even more popular. And just to brag, none of them were built in rules: We played by Honor Rules, words by mouth and trust rather than program. I'd like to see some other multiplayer game (during those times) be broken down this way, to have it so that killing the most wasn't the main objective, despite the in-game rules stating it to be so. It's possible, I've seen it done, but I haven't seen it as super popular as Halo 2 had made it.
Then Halo 3 came around. I didn't get it because I didn't get a 360. I would get one around the time Halo: ODST came about. But I did hear the success stories of Halo 3. Not only did custom game variants shoot through the roofs, but custom map making, /in-game/. Again, I've seen other games do it (garry's mod), but innovation isn't going to get you anywhere if no one plays it.
Now that Halo: Reach has basically perfected Forge World, it's about time that the series retires. It made an awesome FPS, built an awesome community, who created awesome game variants, which was supported by the developers, who decided that it would be awesome if the players could modify maps to reflect these game variants, and just... yeah: awesome.7.

Which brings me to today's argument... Call of Duty vs Halo. First off, I must say that CoD has gotten more and more graphical over the years. I remember the first Call of Duty being a 3-way online experience set in WWII between the Russians, Axis, and Allies. Or that's what I thought it was. Anyway, it appealed more to the multiplayer online gamers, and I didn't have good internet connection back in the day to play multiplayer online games. Second off, they have a good storyline, it's just as good as a typical FPS storyline: not too emotional, lots of betrayals and backstabbings, epic moments, etc. I have to give it props on the FPSRPG genre it spawned.
But that's where it starts to fail.
As much as I'm a profounded near-pro gamer, I do not have time to sit and 'grind' my FPS skills. I can only play 2 or 3 games before I have to run errands or study (yes I study, despite the way it looks like I don't). Which puts me at a great disadvantage. Heck it puts alot of 'good' gamers at a disadvantage. While gamers with lives and jobs have to attend to their lives and jobs, n00b gamers can sit around and play CoD:BO for 24 hours hitting prestige every week. It's bad enough that we busy-gamers can't get high leveled weapons and abilities, it's worse when high leveled weapons and abilities overpower us. Ok, you may think "well, if you're pro, then couldn't you just show off your pro/1337 skillz to these n00bs?" Well, think about it this way: You start off with guns that have the crappiest recoil, rate of fire, ammo capacity, range, damage, and noise. At higher levels, you're allowed abilities that let you live after dying once, you can ninja your way around the map (literally), you can see through walls, you can 'double damage' without headshotting, you can regain life. And this is on top of having weapons with great stats. I may be able to luck out and get straight headshots with the starting crap-rifle, but they can wipe my team faster. Oh that's another thing that bothers me: Kill Streaks. Broken. N00bs can camp out in areas where new players will rush blind and get killing sprees. At higher levels (again), you may do the following if your killing spree is high enough: Spawn a helicopter, spawn a jet fighter, spawn a bombing run, fire a air-to-surface missile, jam the opposing team's radar, or drop the game winning nuke. Now how the **** do I counter a god damn heli with nothing but a crap pistol, a crap rifle (also crap sniper), a crap shotty, a really crappy heavy machinegun, and a very very very crappy anti-vehicle tankbuster? Yeah, I know, "use the tankbuster". How about when the enemy's protecting their helicopter fairly well and hunting down your guys hefting the tankbusters? If everyone on your team syncronized and hefted it, you all would be screwed once the heli leaves, because you wouldn't have great anti-infantry weapons until you respawn! Again, speaking with the situation being: you and a team of pro gamers just started the game vs a team of n00bs (not newbies) who've played the game for months, and already have the highest gear.
Some short stories I have to tell: I've seen a player win a game by himself with the so-called Noobtube and a certain ability that lets him 'change class'/aka respawn with more Noobtube ammo.
My first game that I played, I got called out as a n00b because everyone recognized the starting weapon I had to carry around. I did ok, placing 4th.
There was a game where the enemy had 4 bombing runs. Everyone huddled into the trenches, but were slaughtered anyway because the same enemies were camping there waiting for us to seek refuge.

So anyway, Halo > Call of Duty in my book. Halo is where you can home your skills in, everyone has the same stats and the same weapons. Call of Duty is a game where you can tell who has wasted their lives.

Which brings me to another point...
Again with the fans of Halo. With their custom game editing and map editing skills, they can become video game developers. People have made awesome machinimas (Red Vs Blue, for the win!) and art (lulz at giant grunt) using the game. Not to mention a great handful of music videos.
With Call of Duty, you can see who has wasted their lives by checking out how many times they prestiged. What are you going to do with that? Join the military and show to them how bad ass you are at camping and taking out millions of hostiles in enemy territory? I haven't seen that many good music videos using CoD...


Next win for Halo (yes I'm going completely out of order, because I'm ranting and I can)
Co-op.
This is the reason why Tales of Symphonia is absolute win. Just Co-op. Also the reason why Gears of War is awesome. Anyway, with Co-op, there are a few things that make it epic. 1, it makes the game easier, sometimes. 2, it make the game interesting. 3, it builds companionship. 4, it builds rivalry. 5, it makes the game fun.
Where's Co-op in Call of Duty? I'm sorry, but spec ops is more like a stressful Co-op minigame than a real Co-op. First off, you can't experience the story at all this way. And actually... that's probably my only point. I didn't like the spec ops of CoD4:MW2, it was way too specific of doing things, plus some of them were ridiculously hard. Again, proving the point of: what are you spending your time on? At least with Halo, I can get in onto at least 1 game and get skill up. In CoD... I get stress points and negative skill points, wtf...


Ah, numbers...
What has Call of Duty come up with?
Call of Duty, Call of Duty: United Offense, call of Duty: Finest Hour, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 3: Roads to Victory, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty (5): World at War, Call of Duty (5): World at War: Final Fronts, Call of Duty (5): World at War: Zombies, Call of Duty (6): Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty (6): Modern Warfare (2): Mobilize, Call of Duty (7): Black Ops.
What's that? 17 games and still coming? What's pissing me off right now is the fact that you /have/ to play the next game to keep up. Not because of new graphics, weapons, game variants, but because /the players/ are moving up. I only have CoD4:MW2, and I doubt people are going to be on it. There'll probably be as many people on that game as there are in Halo 2:Vista, not much.
Halo
There are: Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 2: Vista, Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo: ODST, and Halo: Reach.
ZOMG, there's a non-FPS game in that list! and ZOMG 7 games! Time for a retirement! And come on now, Halo's been out since 2001, Call of Duty's been out since 2003. Even if you remove all the 'spin off's and console ports, CoD has nearly the same number of games in less time. I think that's showing something... either A) they are really efficient at making games, or B) they like money... alot. Sure, Bungee's done their way of getting money: franchise and DLC that becomes free in the future, but this is ridiculous... so many games... and you expect me to grindfest them all so that I can be level 50 just so I can use my damned P90 in every game?!? I'd rather play Counter-Strike...



Also... Console exclusive. Halo, Gears of War, and Fable are the 3 series that keeps me from buy a PS3. Those games are awesome single player games, but are better in co-op. They also have Multiplayer online. Those 3 things are something I don't see much on the PS3, that /isn't/ PS3 exclusive. You may laugh the day we port all 3 games onto your console, but we laugh because you can't get ONE game to have all 3 work effectively in it. We have 3 series of them! Sure, God of war is cool, you see lots of blood and violence that you see everywhere. Sure, Kingdom Hearts is epic, but that's also Nintendo, Nintendo is also awesome, Square is just pure win. Metal Gear... I've heard that online multiplayer is weird, but cool. Wait, it's close to having all 3 prerequisites, but it doesn't have co-op! There has been some good multiplayer games, but they aren't good single player/co-op games. Likewise, there are some epic single player games, but no good multiplayer. PS3 is a lone-man's game...


Let me also add some attack against PS3... Ok, I know BluRay is the next generation, but you know what pissed me off? I walked into Target hoping to find a good DVD to buy for my brother's Christmas present. I do find the title (Halo Legends), but IT'S ONLY ON FUCKIN BLURAY!!! I highly doubt my laptops can play BluRay, and I don't have the money for an obsolete BluRay Player. Yes I call it obsolete because a PS3 is more worth the money. Not only can it play BluRay disks, but it also plays games, 2 for 1. But it annoys me that DVDs are almost already becoming obsolete, right when I don't have money to upgrade my systems. I can't really curse my 360, because it was built before Sony decided that BluRay is the next generation.


Till Next Time,
~ErisuKazahana (I do not mean to start wars or hatred, I'm just annoyed at people who brag that PS3 or CoD is awesome. I understand they are awesome, now why don't you disprove me from Halo or PS2?)