October Quickies. Incidentally, we got satellite Internet installed up here, so I do have steady Internet now. Also, here's the pumpkin I carved for Halloween:
12/18 - Chilly Willy
November Quickies.
Also, a few days after I posted More Super Smash Bros. Bawling, Thanksgiving morning to be exact, I found another intelligent, thought-provoking rebuttal from Mr. Jindra. Since it wasn't exactly breaking news I didn't feel it necessary to post it right away, so I held it off until I had something with a little more meat to go with it. The new message is at the bottom of More Super Smash Bros. Bawling. And if anyone's worrying that I'm going to keep you up to date on all my adventures with an Internet lamer, don't. I wasn't even going to post this one, but the Donkey Kong 64 thing was just too good to pass up. Unless he sends me something equally hilarious, this'll be it. Actually, there might be a completely new lamer highlight just around the corner, if I can't think of anything better to write about.
11/20 - I'll Feed the Troll If I Want To; It's Funny
In this inspiration drought I've been going through lately, I'm more than open to site content that writes itself. Today we have a response that took the sender almost three years to make in More Super Smash Bros. Bawling.
11/15 - Well, Halloween Wasn't THAT Long Ago, Right?
October Quickies. Incidentally, we got satellite Internet installed up here, so I do have steady Internet now. Also, here's the pumpkin I carved for Halloween:
Gold star if you know what it's from!
10/05 - Phinal Phantasy
September Quickies. One of the games on there reminded me that I really needed to remove that question about why I hated Earthbound in the Q&A since it was pretty damned irrelevent (mainly because, although it still isn't a personal favorite, I don't really hate Earthbound anymore). I edited and removed some other questions.
Also, this means I got here safely (way back on the 18th of last month, actually) and haven't been eaten by a bear so far. I've also gotten word back from home that the cat with the face tumor finally died towards the end of last month. I knew when I left it was going to be the last time I saw him.
9/15 - Hit the Road
I'm heading out on a trip today. I'm going to be spending a few months at a place out in the country with no Internet, so to get online I have to take the laptop into town to a place with WiFi. If this is the last update, either I can't get online, or I died on the road. Cheers!
9/02 - Mediocrity Ahoy!
July and August quickies. You might notice I got an awful lot done in August (including the actual quickies), even if most of it wasn't very good. This was a combination of wanting to clear out some Steam games I'd had installed for ages but never did anything with, noticing I had deadlines on Club Nintendo surveys due in November and not wanting to phone them in, and trying to keep myself occupied so I wasn't constantly worrying myself sick over the cat with the face tumor.
8/08 - Kitty Woes
June Quickies. I also changed the Final Fantasy 8 screenshot on the May ones, after considering the muddiness of the shot was being caused by Irvine's Limit Break darkening the image. I'm really sorry about how late this is. I've been having cat-related problems.
The first is that two months ago, a mole our oldest cat has had on his chin since as long as we can remember vanished, and the area around it started swelling up. Then it finally popped, leaving a pus-filled hole. The first vet we went to diagnosed it as a severe case of feline acne and prescribed some antibiotics. 90 days and three bottles of Amoxocillin and two bottles of ointment later, it's barely made a dent in it, so the vet sent us to another one to get a biopsy on it. The real problem comes from the fact the cat is sixteen years old and has a heart murmur, making any kind of surgery risky. We got a biopsy which involved drawing cells out of the lump with a needle, which is cheaper than a punch biopsy and doesn't require anesthesia, but isn't as accurate. When they called with the results, it looked like either a cyst or a benign tumor.
We had a dog years ago who needed surgery to remove a some kind of tumor (I don't think it was cancerous, maybe a fat tumor or something), but the vet failed to inform us the dog had an enlarged heart and died literally the night we brought him back from surgery. And last year I had a cat we adopted the same year as this one put to sleep because he couldn't pee and he needed surgery he couldn't get because of heart problems (I think part of his heart was fused to his chest cavity or something?), but at least that vet told us about that and his failing kidneys. Plus, this cat technically belongs to my brother, although he does fuck-all to take care of the cat, which I guess is better because when he has paid attention to the cat he's nearly killed it twice (it's like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer had a fight with Grandpa and started over-fathering the kids, and it was even creepier than when he was half ignoring them) and has lately been in the cat's face all the time and getting on my ass for putting him in my room to give him some time to himself. All said, the cat himself acts perfectly fine. But his chin is all swollen up, and he's still got friggin' hole in his face.
The other, lesser but still troublesome scenario is that about a month ago a red and white stray started hanging around the front yard. We fed and watered it for a while, then my father and I finally took it to the vet. He was microchipped so they gave us his owner's address - literally three houses from us. Turns out his owner moved out and dumped him on the street (and the house they were living in was a rental, and some people who work for the owners said she left the place a dump when she left), and it's kitten season, so we couldn't take him to any of the local cat shelters. So he's currently in my dad's room. He's a sweet cat, but he has a fit when he sees one of the other cats. I guess I can't blame him, because both his ears are slightly knicked and his third eyelid in one eye has a small tear in it, so he obviously got into a scuff some time back. He seems to be gradually adapting to the house and other cats, but he's not there yet.
Combined with some family drama involving one of my half-brothers going off the deep end, I've just been constantly mentally exhausted (I couldn't even be arsed to hook up my Gamecube and get my own screenshot of FF6 Advance). I have at least one full article started, but haven't had the motivation to really work on it.
6/20 - As If E3 2011 Didn't Kill Enough of My Faith in Gaming
May Quickies. I minor note on a screenshot in this one. Between my 2010 article and this quickie, my computer with the capture card I've been using to get screenshots all these years finally gave up the ghost. This is the first time I've had to use my new capture card, the new software is a pain in the butt and the old software has a delay on this computer, and maybe I'm the only person who notices or cares but the resulting screenshot for Final Fantasy 8 is a blurry eyesore. I'm sorry. Maybe once I get this thing figured out I'll get a clearer screenshot.
I'd also like to take this moment to answer some questions I keep finding in my search query report, with rather depressing frequency:
How to beat Groeder in Bionic Commando 2009: Here's what I think is going on with this guy - he only becomes vulnerable when you dodge his attack, but since you auto-heal in this game and he pisses around long enough for you to heal between his attacks, the people who have to ask how to beat him aren't bothing to get out of his way, so he never becomes vulnerable and the fight becomes a stalemate.
How to beat Super Joe in Bionic Commando 2009: This one, however, I don't have a clue what everyone's problem is because the game kills him for you. So either these people REALLY suck at video games or they're referring to the Vulture Army. In the case of the latter, it's a freakin' quick-time event. Push the buttons that appear on the screen!
How to get out of the tank in Blaster Master 2: Hold Down and press the special weapon button (C by default). This is also how you get back in while standing between SOPHIA's wheels, for that one guy who asked, and is why you should never exit at the top of a ladder, because Jason will start climbing down when you go to get back in (if you do find yourself in this situation, there's some trick to get back in, but offhand I don't remember what. And the bottom of a ladder is no problem).
Really, it's only a matter of time before I start getting search queries calling the final bosses of Killer7 and Fable 2 impossible (hint: one just stands there waiting for you to shoot him in the face, the other stands there waiting for you to shoot him in the face and if you wait long enough somebody else shoots him for you).
5/25 - Freedom
April Quickies are up.
I finally graduated from college a couple weeks ago. A year late thanks to some terrible academic advice. I know I make this promise every year, but I should be able to get more work done around here. I haven't even started on Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 or Hard Corps Uprising, so there's two things I have on my To Do list.
4/24 - A Quick Visit From the Easter Bunny
Happy Easter. March Quickies are up. Quite a bit more this month from February.
4/2 - No Joke
In More Blaster Master Odds and Ends I took out the link to that Flying Omelette topic about the unused Blaster Master stuff, and added a note about Skelevenom's face and one more "Stupid Pointless Question." The Unsused Blaster Master Stuff now has its own MOREC. I'll see if I can get pictures of the Engine upgrade and bum rushing enemies in Enemy Below when I have the motivation.
Now, to belatedly celebrate April Fool's Day, here's a couple things I wish were jokes:
Remember when I expressed my concern about how anyone could stomach Tetsuo's mutation in a live action Akira? Well, that's the least of my concerns now (although I was less annoyed by the gaping mouths than I was at how it was nearly impossible to tell half the cast apart from each other).
Also, what the fuck? It's been that way since at least mid-March which is when I first noticed, but it was actually normal yesterday... and today it's back to this! This is like Bizarro Superman's idea of an April Fool's joke.
3/12 - Asleep at the Wheel
February Quickies are up. It wasn't a productive month for me.
I also added some things to More Blaster Master Odds and Ends; two more Stupidity points, a note on the frog boss's name, and an observation on Jason and Roddy's armor. I'm really impressed with how much time I'm spending on a game that not many people outside of Blaster Master's fanbase cared about even when it was released, and actually kind of bugs me.
Also, MyGamerCard.net is defunct, so I removed the code.
2/14 - This Concept of 'Wuv' Confuses and Infuriates Us!
Here's January of the new month-by-month Review Quickie setup.
2/5 - Frostbite
So how about that blizzard that's sweeping the nation, huh? I got off school Tuesday and Wednesday because of it. Then on Thursday I had to go paint an ice cave in a butt-freezing cold studio. Fun times!
I meant to get the new month-by-month Review Quickies setup launched, but the computer with the good capture card seems to have given up the ghost. I can easily use an emulator for the picture I need, but I'm also behind on writing some of the reviews anyway. So, here's More Blaster Master Odds and Ends. There's an observation I wanted to make concerning adult Jason, but I left it out for time and because I'm too lazy to do a little scanning. When I get around to scanning the pictures I'll throw it under Miscellany, along with scans of the boss pages from that Meta Fight guide so somebody who knows Japanese better than I can double check the names.
Also, some Links:
Aqua Bunny - It's baaaaack!
Blaster Master Underground - I didn't even realize I didn't have a link to this place until a short while ago. I guess the site went down or CT moved it while I was doing a dead link cleanup some time ago.
White Rabbit Press - A great place for Japanese books and study materials, and importers will love their White Rabbit Express service.
UPDATE UPDATE 2/11: Hooray for dyslexia and how much the katakana "sa" looks like a hiragana "se"! On a whim I looked at the Meta Fight guide again, and the 2nd boss isn't "Gizeera" it's "Gizaara". That doesn't bring me any closer to figuring out what it's supposed to be, though.
1/3 - Happy New Year!
To celebrate the passing of 2010 and to make up for not doing any Review Quickies the whole year, here's 2010 in Retrospect. Basically, it's Review Quickies for everything I completed that year, only with pictures, although there's no images for the books I read because it would all just be the book covers, which would be dull.
I've also added a Miscellany category to the File Cabinet.