Past Updates

Previous Updates

Here you can look through all of the previous updates. Not that you'd want to, of course, as they consist entirely of my babbling about pointless crap that nobody was around to care about at the time and, in all liklihood, still isn't. Nevertheless, they shall go here to save space, if nothing else.

4/29/02
Well, here's my site. ... Not much to look at... In fact, NOTHING to look at... ^_^o I'd better get to work...

5/03/02
OK. I've added the Links Section. Kind of sad that it's the biggest thing here... Oh well. That will change...

5/26/02 - Late at night
Heh heh... I apologize to the 2 (maybe 3...) people who have actually been to my site. I kind of got distracted by various things and didn't work on the site... for almost 25 days. It was mostly because I didn't have an FTP program, so I wouldn't be able to put anything up here.
Anyhoo, today I saw Spiderman and Star Wars: Episode 2. Yes. That's right: both in the same day. I didn't plan to, either. It just kind of happened... I guess I'll review both movies in my sarcastic little way...

Spiderman

The theater was nice, reasonably sized, and not at all crowded. Yay. There was a preview for Goldmember that showed Fat Bastard in a way that I would have sold several vital organs to prevent myself from visualizing it - a sumo wrestler outfit. *shudder* I'll probably still see it though. On to the actual movie: I have never read a Spiderman comic in my life and I don't plan to start now. But this movie made me regret not doing so... a little. It was comical, cool-looking and the semi-lifeless actor who played Peter Parker didn't take away from the movie as much as I thought he would. I reccomend that you go see it. Now.

Star Wars: Episode 2

The theater was unpleasant, huge, and filled to the brim -_-. I am happy I didn't go to the first showing. I probably would have felt like a sardine trapped in a can that was currently holding 1,000,000 times what had been intended. Undercover Brother looked like it might be funny. Like Mike is one movie that I think was described perfectly by Brian Clevinger: (The guy who does 8-Bit Theater)

There was this horrible, horrible, horrible movie being previewed. It will join the ranks of the Air Bud trilogy, that movie with a baseball playing ape, that other movie where the kid breaks his arm and it heals weird so that he can throw super fast baseballs, and I hate myself for being able to cite this many examples off the top of my head but at least I can thank whatever merciful supreme being there is in the universe that I can't recall their exact titles and inflict their amazon.com links upon you. Anyway, it's some movie where Li'l Bow Wow gets lightning powered Michael Jordan shoes which enable him to play like Mike. Call me crazy, but I have a feeling that somewhere in the last 20 minutes the shoes will run out of juice and he'll have to play the championship game with nothing but his heart. It'll be a movie for the whole family. It'll make more money than you and I will see in our entire lives. Kill me.

My sentiments exactly ^_^. The movie itself was OK, I guess. It did, however, have horrible acting from several of the main characters (must... kill... Anakin's actor...) and the plot seemed a little shaky at times, to me. But, then it got to what we all went there to see: The Big Light Saber and Laser Fight Scene! That scene had to be better than any in the past for the following reasons:

There were more than just 2-4 Jedi at once. (I wasn't counting, but there were about 8 or so)
Anakin got his hand cut off. (Woo hoo!)
Yoda was kicking ass! (You'd be amazed at how well that 2-foot tall old alien with a cane can move...)

In short, do yourself a favor and see this movies.

Well, I'd like to stay up all night, but I need sleep. The reason? On Friday night, there was a lock-in at Laser Quest for a friend's birthday. A lock-in is where you go there at midnight and stay there until about 7 AM, playing various games all night long... ^_^o I slept until about 2:30 after I got home yesterday... Anyway, goodnight.

5/30/02
I still don't have an FTP program... I also realized that I never put up my e-mail address or AIM screen name so that any of the 2 to 4 people who decide that they have nothing better to do than converse with me can do so. They're up now. Yay. That is all.

5/30/02 - About 2 minutes after the first one
Oh yeah, and my birthday was May 28th. 2 days ago. E-mail or IM me to make me feel loved. Or don't. I'm too happy that Finals ended today to care. I'm also happy that I just found out that my sister, who fell down the stairs at a friend's house and was sent to the Emergency Room because she seemed so out of it, is feeling fine, now. Why didn't I mention her a moment ago? I was trying not to think about it. Anyway, that is, probably, all for tonight.

6/3/02
Yay! Nintendo's making a new Kirby game. Watch the little movie they have. It looks like it will be NOTHING like Kirby's Dream Land 3 or Kirby and the Crystal Shards (both of which sucked horribly). It's sort of like they've merged Kirby's Super Star (best Kirby game ever, IMO) and Kirby's Adventure (2nd best Kirby game ever, IMO) so there's no way it can be bad! Well, I mean, other than them making it bad in the way that Kirby 64 or KDL3 was bad, anyway... Oh yeah, and Meta Knight's back! Hopefully, he'll be the main villain this time, not that sissy Black/Dark Matter thing.

In a completely unrelated matter, I started Driver's Ed today. It's so freakin boring...

6/21/02
^_^o Once again, I've ignored this site for a very long time... Of course, since nobody ever visits here, that shouldn't bug too many people... In between the last time I updated, I've completed driver's ed. I've also seen three movies, all of which I'll review. Not as detailed as my Spiderman and Star Wars reviews because they aren't stuck in my mind as much.

Undercover Brother - Funny. Racist, but funny. Unless you are easily offended by stereotypes, you'll probably like this movie.

About A Boy - Very, very funny. It's strange, though... I can't recall very many events from it... ^_^o Some lines that I recall and enjoyed from the main guy were: about his friends' son (to the audience, not aloud), "Oh God, here comes the anti-Christ..."; about his kid friend's mom's clothing (to the audience, not aloud), "She seemed to be wearing some sort of a Yeti costume"; about spending time with his kid friend's mom, "No. I'm not going to waste my time with Ms. Grenola-suicide." Watch this. Now.

Minority Report - I saw this less than 2 hours ago, actually. Not funny like Undercover Brother or About A Boy, but it has its moments. It does have a great plot, though. Go to the nearest theater and watch this immediately. If the nearest theater is closed, go there, break in and watch this immediately.

That's all for now. I finally got an FTP program, though. Now if only I had anything worth putting up... Oh well. Another problem for another day...

8/18/02
... Alright... So I lied... If I said that I'd try to update more often... Looking through this, I don't think I did... But anyway, I am HONESTLY going to try to update more often. Don't expect anything until Friday or next weekend, though because school begins again tomorrow for me. :(

In other news, I still have nothing worth putting on the site and probably won't until I get some free time. I've considered making a sprite-comic, but, considering the amount of time and effort I'd have to put into one (which I lack), don't hold your breath. Maybe getting PhotoShop to mess around with while I made them would make me more inclined to do so... But meh.

Anyhoo, since I last updated: I've seen Goldmember (funny! but no review this time), I've watched all of Magic Knight: Rayearth's first season (Pretty cool anime), I started work on an Ogre Battle RPG (Yay! ^_^), I've read all of 8-Bit Theater and RPG World to this day (some might consider that a waste of time, but those people haven't read 8-Bit Theater or RPG World enough to know, and if they have, then they don't know enough about Final Fantasy 1 or RPGs in general so their thoughts on the topic are irrelevant), I went to Colorado for about 1.5 weeks (Pretty cool place, but kinda dull at times), experienced a lack of internet access for half a week after I got back (See? I'm an honest guy! Otherwise I probably woulda just said that the internet was down and THAT was the reason I hadn't updated) and... that's about it.

Although I DID win 3rd in Yutz's Second Make Your Own Entitling Flukes Contest. Interestingly, I won 4th in Yutz's First Make Your Own Entitling Flukes Contest... Anyhoo, I'll see the 2 of you who visit the next time you get bored and decide to squander several precious seconds/minutes of your life here.

8/21/02 - Late at night
BLARGH!! This has probably already gone through your minds, whether or not you people who are still in school have started it yet, but I won't feel better until I say this for all the internet with no lives to the point that they ACTUALLY visit here to see:

SCHOOL IS PRIMARILY PURE EVIL AND MUST BE DESTROYED IN ITS ENTIRETY!! DESTROYED, I TELL YOU!! DESTROYED!!

There. Culix feels better now... Culix has to go in a bit, but Culix'll complain later... Culix misses summer vacation... Culix is sad... Culix is so sad that Culix is now referring to Culix in the third person...

8/23/02
WOO HOO!!!! Iiiiitttt'ssss.... FRIDAY!!!!!!! That means school is over and I am happy! ...that is, I would be, if some heartless bastard didn't find some amusement in somehow getting into my locker and stealing my Comm. App. and Spanish II books... which brings me to the point where I try to use my website to educate people who need it and might see this:

STEALING IS BAD!!!

There. Now nobody can say that I my site is doing nothing but taking up space on the internet. Anyhoo, I have nothing to really say, but, after homework (Culix is sad again :( ) I might get around to installing that FTP program, finding something worth putting up here and then putting it up. I make no promises though...

Oh yeah. And, somehow, my site has now been visited over 50 times! And, to the best of my recollection, only about 5 of them or so are mine! Isn't that amazing?! Well, not really, but... at least my bandwith is almost certain to never run out. ^_^o

9/6/02
I meant to update at least once a week. Well, according to the date, it's been about 2 weeks since my last update. Oh well...

Last week, I tried to make a little bit of a sprite comic, which I thought was kind of funny. However, in the process, I learned that Microsoft Paint is not the best program for making sprite comics as they tend to remove color quality/make things really blurry/do some other annoying thing whenever you try to save your work. I actually already knew that from making EarthBound flukes with it, but...

Anyhoo, I have started writing the script for such a webcomic and have a few comics invisioned that I think would be fun to make and funny to read. So, maybe, if I get Photoshop 6.0 sometime in the near future, I might make it. In a somewhat unrelated topic, I've made VERY little overall headway on the FFRPG FFVI worldbook and, if anybody who likes the FFRPG wants to see that done, they should e-mail me. Almost incessently. Because that's how people are motivated: by people sending them e-mails telling them to get off their lazy duffs and back to work.

In another unrelated topic, earlier today, I rediscovered my favorite Bomberman game. A game which Nintendo never really gave the credit nor the advertising that it deserved. The game is Bomberman 64: The Second Attack. Now, I know that there are some amongst you who see that it's an N64 game and immediately decide that I have no taste because the N64 is, by and large, a worthless system and about 80%, more or less, of all games that it possesses aren't worth the carbon that it took to make their cartridges. However, that doesn't mean that its few good games, the ones which, rather ironically, recieved, comparitively speaking, amongst the least advertising and reknown from Nintendo, are still very good. I'm referring to games like Hybrid Heaven, The Legend of the Mystical Ninja: Starring Goeman, Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, Harvest Moon 64 and Mischief Makers. If Nintendo had given these games more credit, I really think they would have, perhaps not saved, but at least cushioned the reputation of the N64.

But, back to The Second Attack: It's really a great game. At any rate, it had a better plot than Quest 64. In fact, it had a better plot than some games I've played that were RPGs. If you can find this game, or any of the others that I mentioned above, you should buy it. Unless, of course, you don't own an N64, you don't have the money, you already own it or some such reason. But really, you'll enjoy it/them, if you can find them.

And that's really all I wanted to say. Well... Now that I think about it, there is one thing that I'd like to get off of my chest...

I would like to show how the counselors have screwed with my schedule since the school year began: First, they gave me regular English II and Spanish II when I demanded AP/IB (honors). One week later, after I submitted a schedule change form, they fixed Spanish, but English was still not AP. -_- I submitted another schedule change form and waited a few days for them to fix it. They didn't so I went down there myself to fix it. Then they did. And everything looked like it would be splendid for the rest of the year. ^_^ But they weren't done messing with my schedule yet... They switched Spanish II IB with Comm. App. about .5 days later. For Spanish II IB, it wasn't really a problem. It was just a little out of my way. For Communication Applications, however, it was not only out of my way, but the teacher happened to be one of the teachers of the course who gave a LOT of homework and projects, while I had the easiest under 24 hours prior. -_- So I decided to take advantage of the few days I had left to make my schedule what I desired. They wouldn't let me exchange Spanish II with Comm. App, so I decided to just drop Comm. App. Then they gave me Keyboarding, which I had already taken in middle school. So I made them change it again and now, at long last, I am in Art. I might enjoy it more if I could actually draw and the teacher didn't expect me to make up all of the work I had missed without her fully explaining it to me. Grr... And, of course, this wouldn't have happened at all if those bastards could have just left well enough alone! Ah well... There's nothing that I can do about it except fume. Which I intend to do. A lot.
Well, till next time...

9/13/02
Yay! I'm back on the planned schedule of once a week updates! Now if only I could say that something was actually being done on the site in those updates... Ah well. Another problem for another day.

Anyhoo, as I mentioned earlier, I want to make a sprite comic. However, I need some things that I'm too lazy to go out and find/make myself. If anybody out there could send some of the things that I need, I'd be very happy. Especially since it would prove that people are actually visiting this site. ^_^

What I need to make what I envision for the sprite comic includes: video game backgrounds (preferably from RPGs and in the format utilized by Brian Clevinger in 8BT), video game sprites (once again, preferably from RPGs and some custom sprites would be nice) and a copy of Adobe Photoshop (I've tried other systems including MS Paint, Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop, but I haven't been able to produce the desired effect, so I'd like to try Photoshop).

So, people: Make me happy by sending me these things and proving that people actually come to this site in the process! Once I've got these things, I can make some comics. With something worth putting up, maybe I'll finally get around to installing that FTP program thingy. ^_^

9/14/02
Woo! I'm updating a little more frequently! Go me! ... ^_^o Yeah, that was kind of a dumb thing to type...

Anyhoo, I've played a little bit of Animal Crossing that I rented and it is fun... except for the fact that it requires 57 memory slots... and a GCN Memory Card only has about 59 or 60 memory slots. -_- So, I'm stuck not being able to save. *sigh* But the game is fun. If you own a Game Cube, you should rent/buy it sometime. It also has a lot of replay value because it never ends. Yay! Well, other than Animal Crossing endorsement, I have nothing else to put up here, so... See the 3 of ya later!

9/16/02
Oh yeah. And I forgot to give the new Kirby show 'Right Back At Ya' on the Fox Box Culix's (nonexistant until just now as I type this) Seal of Approval. It was a pretty good show. However, like many things, I have some minor complaints:

It was pretty good, those minor annoyances aside. Some of the jokes were ok. King Dedede with a southern accent seemed to suit him. Not as well as I would have liked, but meh. And I couldn't help smiling at the TV when the guy from Nightmare Industries turned to face his boss about Kirby being a threat. His boss' sillhouette looked exactly like the Nightmare from Kirby's Adventure! ^_^ I am totally watching this show every time it comes on, if I'm able to.

9/16/02 - A couple minutes after the first one
New DBZ episodes started today on Toonami! w00t!!

9/25/02
Yay! This is the first school night in a while that I've been able to get on the internet. 1337! Now if only I had anything worth saying/doing here... Oh well...

9/25/02 - Several minutes after the first one
I've updated the Links section!

... Hmm... Maybe I should change the name of this place to Culix's Haven of Links and Rants. Then it would seem more honest... However, if you send me the things I requested earlier out of being too lazy to otherwise obtain them on my own, I'd be able to make a web-comic and then I might feel like putting up other things too. Well, until (probably) Friday...

10/14/02
^_^o I've neglected this place again... It was mostly because I was annoyed. You see, I finally had something worth putting up. *GASP!* However, apparentally, that FTP program that I said I've just been neglecting to put up was never in my possession. Yep. Or maybe it was just deleted. Anyway, until I get a hold of an FTP program, you'll have to do without my little thing, which you may have seen elsewhere.

In other news: Live A Live, though a very hard game, is quite fun, most of the time. I am the proud owner of the first two tapes of Slayers. A friend of mine who said he'd call me since all of my attempts to contact him have failed miserably, neglected to for whatever reason. I feel somewhat sorry for Majin Buu and every other DBZ villain that was created for the purpose of evil or otherwise obligated to do evil (Cell, Dabura, Androids 17, 18 and 19, every one of Babidi's henchmen, etc.) and laugh at those who are evil by choice (Babidi, Bibidi, Frieza, King Cold, Cooler, etc.). Super Mario Sunshine isn't very fun. The new appearance of 8BT is nice, but I sorta miss the old look; I know not why. I am sleepy.

That's it for me. Yeah, so maybe you DID waste your time reading this. Well, I would have hoped by this point that you would know that VISITING HERE IN GENERAL is pretty much a waste of time. Am I saying don't come back? Of course not. It's just... ... I can't think of an at all good way to end that sentence. ... Ack...

10/25/02
Well, I'm back at working on this site. I finally have a working (I hope...) FTP program. I'll test it later. Why not now, you ask? Because my computer is laggy as hell so even this minor updating is going very slowly. So, I'll upload a file later to celebrate.

Anyhoo, little is going on in my life. The first Biology test that was actually EASY was today. With about 25 or so points of extra credit, no less. And with an assignment for another 10 extra credit points due on Tuesday... ^_^. So today was a pretty good day. Well, except for one thing that I really have to get off my chest...

So I was sitting with my friends eating lunch, talking, playing cards, and other little things that I am accustomed to do during Lunch. Anyway, some jackass walks up from nearby, reaches into my backpack, removes a pencil, says he 'just needed to borrow it' and walks off. I would have taken steps to stop him but I was WAY too unprepared so I kind of just stared at him, wondering why somebody that stupid and thievous was allowed to live. So, after he's walked a few feet away, I did what any normal person in my situtation would have done: I shouted obscenities at him and told him to give it back. So what does the bastard do? Well, after he realizes that the pencil has no point (it was a pretty old pencil...) he throws it at my head! And hits! And then he starts laughing and pointing, saying 'bullseye!' to his friends! The asshole almost took out an eye! Really: What the hell possesses people to do such evil, stupid things like that? I probably would have done something about it too, if I wasn't having so much trouble coming to terms with the fact that somebody who's THAT big of a jackass could actually exist. If my school wasn't so big, I'd be certain that he was the same bastard who kept breaking into my locker, earlier in the year... I have a wish, one that I'm certain many other share, that all people like that be crushed into a massive collective bloody pulp. Or, preferably, something much more gruesome...

There. I feel a lot better now that that's out in the open. So I'll be happy again. ^_^ Anyway, to any of you who like RM2K games and want to help some friends and me make one, proceed to The Name Pending Project. I was hoping for SOME people to actually pop up there without me having to announce it... Anyway, the people working on it and I need help. Lots of help. I actually intended it to be made from the thoughts of many, many people when I made the ezboard. So... Go there. And here is a place on the project where I have posted I new idea that I wish to implement on the project. And I'll upload that thingy I was talking about a little while ago after I reset my computer. Which I shall do now.

10/25/02 - A few hours after the first one
Ha ha! After finding that the second FTP program didn't work, I went hunting on the internet and found an FTP program that actually DOES work!! Unbelievable? Yes, I know. Well, at long last, I'm able to keep my promise, so, I give you Anime Laws of Physics! Yay! Not quite worth the wait of almost half a year? I didn't think so. But, at least this site now has a purpose... And one more thing: I didn't come up with those laws on my own; I got them out of an RM2K game, Slayers Nova. If I recall their web address, I'll put it up here. Anyhoo, my little roleplaying session with a couple of friends starts soon, so I'll be going now. Enjoy the file and I shall see you upon my return!

10/29/02
Well, nothing new... yet... and, well, there probably won't be for a while. Anyhoo, today was my dad's birthday, so it was kinda nice that I didn't have much homework because I never would have been able to get it done and go. Additionally and the reason there probably won't be any new stuff for a while, my uncle is getting married this weekend. This doesn't seem like it would take up too much time, but the wedding's in Austin, so that means about a two-hour drive, both there and back. My family and I will also be spending the night there, so... :( And I'll just hope I don't have much homework. Ah well.
The Simpsons season premiere is that Sunday, so I'll definetly make time to see it. Woo! Anyway, I must get off now, so I'll do... something when I get on again.

11/3/02 - Late at night
Yesterday was my uncle's wedding. ^_^ Yay! I had to go to Austin for the half an hour service in the rain in a small tent and then stay in that city all day so I wasn't able to do my homework until today. -_- Boo. I've also got a sore throat (and I rarely get sick) and I had more homework than usual this weekend. -_- Bleh...

Crappy little worthless things to say? Well, yeah. But... But... Oh... Sleepy... Ill... Bleh...

That is all.

11/11/02
*gasp* I'm posting at 5 PM! Anyway, I have little time, so I'll simply alert my nonexistant faithful readers to go here immediately. Some examples are: Pretty Kendo Kitty Ryokehe, Strawberry Robot Hichie, Bubblegum Samurai Pichoo, Strawberry Ninja Rizon, Record of Shiny Princess Kozun and The Legend of Mutant Kitten Zachoshi 999. ^_^ I will never get tired of this!

11/11/02 - Later
*gasp* I'm posting today AGAIN! And it's lmost 10 PM! Anyhoo, I think that Lance and Eskimo.com is one of the most amusing places on the web. I'll be adding it to the Links section soon, for sure.

Well, there's more stuff that I felt like saying, but I don't have much time left so I'll just give you the best anime title that came from the title generator: The Legend of Manly Goddess Ryakei.

11/13/02
First off: The Legend of Manly Goddess Ryakei = still funny. In other news, I realize that I never fully went over the events of my uncle's wedding:

In the beginning, I had to leave my comfy, comfy bed at about 9 AM or so, then wait for about 3/4 of an hour for my uncle to show up and take my dad and me (my sister and mom having left the day before) to pick up my grandpa (my grandma had to stay home because she has alzheimer's :( ) and then drive all the way to Austin. I am fairly certain that I would have died of boredom on the trip if I had not had my Game Boy Advance with me. Yep. Oracle of Ages is 1337.

Eventually, we get to the hotel and there was little to do. I turned on the TV and decided to look at the previews, since I felt like watching a movie later that evening. At several points in that 10 minute long (I couldn't stop the damn thing once it started...) presentation, they advertised The Naked News. Normally, this would catch my interest immediately and maintain it for a little while, but it was something that must be paid for. People who know me know that I would definetly have at least taken a look at that had it been free. Those people also know that if it cost a penny, I would promptly look for something else to while away my time. So I did.

An episode of The Lost World was on so I watched that. ... If it has been cancelled, I would TOTALLY understand why. Essentially, these people were wandering around inside of a big beehive. One girl (somehow) fell into a honeycomb cell that was sealed a moment later and then she stabbed the thing that was moving inside. This angered a woman elsewhere who was, apparentally, the hive's queen. After she met the people who were inside the beehive, they exchanged a lot of corny dialogue and then she sicced (not sure that's spelled right...) her (horribly done) bee minions on them. Then, one of the guys decides to set the hive on fire from the inside. So, following another corny dialogue exchange, the 'hive queen' (who had a total of about 5 minutes of camera time) decided to stay behind and die with the hive. Boo hoo. Once again: I totally understand why this show was cancelled. And if it hasn't been cancelled, I will come to the conclusion that many TV executives have exceedingly poor taste. Especially since Nickelodeon cancelled Invader Zim and Fox talked of cancelling (or did they?) Futurama.

But, moving on...

Then I got into my tuxedo and left for the wedding. I would like to say this of tuxedos: The person who came up with them must have recently suffered a severe concussion. They look idiotic, they feel uncomfortable and they're a pain to get into. To the slower children at the back of the class: Culix thinks tuxedo = bad. Anyway, we got there eventually. And then the real fun began...

It was an outdoor wedding. Under few circumstances would that not be great. This, however, happened to take place under circumstances that made it quite unpleasant: It was raining. A lot. For a long time. It seems that this had not been forseen so all that was available was a leaky tent. A fairly small leaky tent. It was fine other than that, though. Until dinner, anyway...

Following the ceremoney, we all went to an Italian restaurant (I got to ride in a limo! w00t!! ^_^). We arrived to find garlic bread, which I'm not too fond of, but it was pretty good. With some encouragement from other members of my family, I decided to do something very un-me and order something other than my usual pasta: I ordered a pizza made with 4 cheeses, some of which I had never tasted before. I presumed there would be sauce on this pizza. Wrong. I presumed it would arrive soon. Wrong again. I presumed it wouldn't taste very bad. Wrong yet again. I honestly was about to throw up. I felt something come up, but I was somehow able to stifle it down. The cake was the only good part about dinner. And the toast that my uncle's friend made: "To you, Lisa's family, I have this to say: He's not what he seems" was a highlight of it.

Then, my family returned home and watched a little of Saturday Night Live (not too great an episode, but I didn't get to see Weekend Update, so...) and then slept. When we woke up, we returned home, (and I made it to and beat the final boss of Oracle of Ages! ^_^ Go me!) watched Adult Swim which I had, oh so cleverly, taped the night before (up with (dubbed -_-) anime that isn't shown to kids for some reason!) and then I got to do all of the homework I had that weekend (and it was more than usual, too... -_-). Ah well. The Simpsons Halloween Special was amusing that night. And then I slept

Well, I've rambled on about my weekend almost enough, but, to review about that weekend: Wake up early. Drive many hours while playing GBA. Watch bad show. Put on tuxedo of evilness. Be in tuxedo of evilness at wedding in rain under leaky tent. Almost throw up from eating demonic pizza. Eat cake. Laugh at toast. Watch SNL. Wake up early. Drive many hours while playing GBA. Watch Adult Swim. Work. Watch Simpsons. Sleep.

Before I go: The Legend of Mutant Kitten Zachoshi 999 = 2nd funniest Anime Title Generator title I've seen and The Legend of Manly Goddess Ryakei = Funniest Anime Title Generator title I've seen. Goodnight everybody.

11/16/02
^_^o I really need to start making sure I have something worth putting up at least every once in a while when I post. But I do have something worth saying. Sorta...

I finished watching Slayers TRY today. w00t! It is, so far, my favorite anime that I have seen from beginning to end. I do not deny the fact that the number of animes that I have seen from beginning to end is really rather pathetic. Unless I'm forgetting some, they are: Magic Knight: Rayearth, Tenchi Muyo (VHS and TV), and, of course, Slayers TRY.

In Slayers TRY, I saw one of the funniest anime scenes that I have ever beheld. It goes something like this:

Filia: just finished saving Jillas from his large bomb when he accidentally set off the self destruct button, "Are you alright?"
Jillas: has watery eye (because he has an eyepatch) and is smiling, "Your breasts are large. And soft, too." (because she threw herself on top of him, putting her breasts directly on Jillas' muzzle)
Filia: "..."
Jillas: is punched in the head

Ha ha ha. I am easily amused, somewhat.

11/15(or 16...)/02 - Really, really late at night (or really, really early in the morning)
Once again: nothing new to add other than a little rundown of the events of my life that I don't think that anybody really cares about, but I include up here anyway because it's my site so I feel I have that right.

For the past few nights, I have been reading Love in the Time of Cholera for an English extra credit assignment. It isn't that bad, especially considering that I'm getting 2.5 extra credit points for it. To those of you who are thinking, 'Why bother?', those points are on the report card or final exam grade.

Anyhoo, as I read the book, there is one character who you really just cannot help feeling sorry for: He falls in love with a girl, and shortly after he announces his love to her, her father takes her away for 3 years, during which point they maintain a long-distance relationship over the telegraph and through letters, after which she returns, meets him in the market, at which point he says a somewhat romantic thing (from her point of view, anyway) and she turns to him, looks him over, then tells him to forget it before walking off and not speaking to him again for fifty-something years, causing him to go on a ship to another city for a while, on which he is forced to give up his first-class cabin with no refund and go to the lower deck where he is raped by some woman who he never really knows ever again. To make things clear: His life sucks. Period.

The reading is discussed at lunch and then the extra points are awarded. Wee! So, following that, I'm on my way back towards my locker, and then I see these assholes trying to break into other people's lockers. Normally I wouldn't care because these people, due to lack of success, obviously had no clue how to break into a locker with an average lock. Those kinds of locks are pretty easy to break into, if you know how they work. If you don't, then they do their job very well. However, then I noticed that they were starting on mine as I walked nearby. I do not have a normal lock. I have a comparitively crappy lock. It does not do its job well. One could even go so far as to say that it sucks at its job. I have no doubt that they would have broken in had I not walked up at that moment and said, "Would you mind not breaking into my locker?" So they chuckled, stopped trying on my locker and the ones nearby and left.

Yep. Society is degenerate. It just is.

Well, I guess I'll go to bed soon. Then I'll wake up, watch the two Saturday morning cartoons (they're not just for little kids, any more!) that I usually watch, go to Tae Kwon Do, work for a little while, and then, while my friends in Washington enjoy 5 freakin hours of anime (lucky bastards...) I will play and, hopefully, beat all/most of Live A Live. With it out of the way, I'll begin work on Super Metroid, a game that I never played on the SNES because I was dumb. Maybe I'll make a text file of my 'adventures on whatever-planet-the-game-takes-place-on' as I play, too. Then, following that, I'll do the same thing for Ogre Battle, another game I never played on the SNES, but for another reason: It was nowhere to be found after I learned of its existence. Yep. I'll do that later.

In closing: Live A Live = cool. BESM = uber cool. Slayers TRY = cool. Kingdom Hearts = pretty cool. The Anime Title Generator = cool and funny. The Legend of Mutant Kitten Zacoshi 999 and The Legend of Manly Goddess Ryakei = still INSANELY funny. Culix = sleepy.

That is all. G'night everybody.

11/23/02
Lookie here! There's something new up! And it's pretty damn massive by comparison to everything else on this site! It also is, and has been for quite a while, my favorite Remix. Yep.

Safety in Numbers. I don't really like the name, but the remix itself is roxor. Enjoy the work of Orkybash, which is another name I don't really like, but he himself is roxor because he made the remix that has a name that I don't really like but is itself roxor. ... And that last sentence served almost no purpose! Yay!

In another unrelated topic: I'm reeeeeeeally close to beating Live A Live. All I need to do are find and finish two more mini-dungeons, then take on the final dungeon after deciding on my final party. Yep. Live A Live is cool. You should all play it some time, if you can find it anywhere on the internet, that is. La dee dah.

11/24/02
*gasp* An update the day after another update?! No, you're not dreaming my lone/non-existant reader. This. Is. REAL! But, moving on...

I have beaten Live A Live! By that, I mean that I have beaten Live A Live by getting the only good ending that the game has to offer. Yes. With all pieces of Ariel Armor, all level 16 ultimate techniques, all ultimate weapons and... Well, I guess that's all I really needed to say as far as 'what I had' goes.

The ending was good. Well worth the effort that I put in to get it. In fact, the only bad thing that I can say about the game that really matters is this: Yun's face. I do not like it. I thought that Yun was a cool character, but yee gods! RPG characters should not have mugs like that unless they are not human! I mean... Bleck! Would it have killed Squaresoft to give every character a face a mother could love without expelling massive amounts of bile?

Still, it was good, despite that flaw. As I mentioned before, I'm going to provide a walkthrough of how I go through Super Metroid and Ogre Battle. I'm just not sure when I'm going to do and then provide them. Eventually, I suppose. They would certainly happen more quickly if my art teacher would stop assigning large art projects that cannot be finished in the amount of time that we are given without taking them home for the weekend... -_-

Before I go nightie-night: The Legend of Manly Goddess Ryakei = still funny!

11/29/02
Sadly, the string of straight day updates has ended. However, I'm back at least. That makes up for it. Doesn't it? *silence* Doesn't it? *more silence* *random person coughs* Of course it does!

Anyway...

In the past few days: I had two days of school and a lot of much-needed holiday! ^_^ Unfortunately, on Wednesday, the power went out until about 4:30 PM. -_- However, I did rent Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet. That was a cool game. What do I mean 'was'? Well, I beat it under an hour ago. After about 18 hours and 45 minutes of game play. And yet it says I only got 95% of everything in the game...

I have to assume, therefore, that the final boss fight is worth a full 5% because once you reach the final area, there is no way to leave. And, if you happened to save in there, you're pretty much screwed if you wanted to go anywhere else. The reason for my belief that the last fight is worth 5% is because I don't think that Nintendo and/or Rare would go through the trouble to make such a rockin game and put that little EVIL thingie at the end. However, upon a little reflection, I guess (and hope) that there is some way out of that little trap. As soon as I find out what that is, I'll be sure to let you know.

Until then, here's a warning: When you're in the 5th Krazoa Shrine, DO NOT SAVE. Once you get the fifth spirit, you enter a little scene, then leave for the final area where the sixth spirit is, followed by a cutscene and the final battle. This final area, to remind those of you with horrible short term memories, cannot be left, as far as I know.

Despite that, it's a great game so, if you own a Game Cube, rent/buy it. If you don't own a Game Cube, but have a friend who does, get them to rent/buy it and then play it over there. And if you don't own a Game Cube and don't have a friend who does, then you have my permission to drown in your collective tears of sorrow.

Well, I shall return later. If anybody there can spare a moment: Please e-mail/IM me... I am lonely... I am needy... Please...

Anyhoo, bye for now.

12/20 or 21/02
It's been a very long time since an update. Fortunately, I can report that I do have things to show to all! First, a 1337 MIDI file. Second, I have my submission to the Secret of Mana Theater Fan Comic Contest. I would just like to say that I hate MS Pain... Err... MS Paint...

And, last but certainly not least, a friend of mine has made a really, really funny fanfic entitled Animon: Anime Monsters. Though it REALLY implies that it's largely on Digimon, what exists of it so far has, not counting the first part of the first chapter and the last part of the last (at this point) chapter, has almost nothing to do with it. Instead, it contains the following characters, to name a few (And by 'a few', I of course mean 'most of them') : Vegeta, Son Gohan, Speedy Cirviche, Ranma Saotome, Washu, Heero, Polly Esther, Ryoga, Piccolo, Tron Bonne, American-edited Team Rocket, Megaman, Guido Anchove, and (for reasons that I shall NEVER understand because she appears for no apparent reason, then is never mentioned again) Kodachi. So, read it now!

Oh yeah. And I put the Power Rangers up there. They will protect my page from hackers. Well, I hope this was worth the wait of my nonexistant fans. G'night. Culix needs his sleepy...

Several minutes after the last one
Look at that! I added the Download section! Enjoy it, for it contains a whole 5 files!

12/28/02
^_^ I skipped a few days, but I'm happy right now! And I will probably continue to be happy for the remainder of the winter break! w00t! But, anyway...

Christmas was nice. I recieved the following games: Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic: Mega Collection, Metroid Prime, Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, DBZ: Legacy of Goku, and Animal Crossing. They're all great. Yeah. They totally are. I don't quite know why I'm rambling right now. I guess just because I'm rather sleepy. I stayed up until about 4:30 yesterday watching movies with a couple of friends of mine (good movies, but so sleepy...) and then one of said friend's father woke me up at about 8:30, accidentally. -_- Then, I fell asleep again for a couple of hours, and when I woke up, there were 3 guys standing around I'd never seen before. Naturally, I was a little freaked out.

Of course, then one of them (whose name has escaped me) put in a DVD of an anime called Hellsing, to those of you who've never heard of it. It (or at least the version we watched) was HORRIBLY translated. I mean, on one line where the main woman (the plot was too difficult to follow with the crappy translation as it was so I couldn't pick up any names) was supposed to be saying something like, "Such insolence," however it, somehow, came up as something like, "Look at Disney output frequency." I mean: Sweet Jeebus... Sweet freakin monkey Jeebus on a pogo stick... And then of course, there was another enlightening exchange of dialogue: Man: "What do you think caused this?" Woman: "Yes, it isn't." Me: "... What the...?" Actually, I said, "... What the...?" rather a lot during that anime. Alucard (provided the translated name wasn't also screwed up) was cool, though.

Well, that's all for the time being. Byeeeee.

1/26/02 (Heh... I meant 03... ^_^o)
Hah! Now you can't say I haven't updated in a month! ^_^

Well, I've missed out on a couple of things, so I'll just say one or two of them. First off: Happy New Year!

...

Well... Umm... Now that I think about it, that's about it. ^_^o I've watched some reruns of Red Dwarf for no reason other than I was bored. It's such a cool show... Obtain copies of the episodes and watch them. Now!

Hmm... Anything else... Oh yeah. I added So-Nic-Oh! to the links. It's a web-comic made by a friend of mine: Dark War Ness/Red Falcon Mech/Ein/Ness/EarthBounder Ness/Lord of Many Pseudonyms. And I DID make up that last one because it seemed appropriate. w00t. I said that because it, too, seemed appropriate at the time. Looking back on it, I can see that I was mistaken. :P Oh well. What's that? Since I can easily delete that since this is my webpage why don't I? Because I'm too lgz to do so.

Another thing that I'm too lgz to do is making a sprite comic. I have two ideas, one I plan to implement shortly before Summer Vacation and the other I plan to implement once I stop being so lgz. Which might happen next weekend, since I recieved favorable feedback from a friend of mine on one of my ideas for it. Sadly, that will quite likely be the funniest thing throughout its entire duration. Oh well. I'll leave you with a line from one of my favorite books, Life, The Universe, And Everything, the third book in the Hitchiker's Guide To The Galaxy series:

Zaphod had heard that discretion is the better part of valor and that cowardice is the better part of discretion, so he therefore valiently hid himself in a nearby closet.

Yep. Buy the book. And the rest in the series. G'night.

1/29/03
Yes, that's right! I'm posting this at about 4:00 in the afternoon a mere three days after my last update. ^_^ w00t. Anyhoo...

I'm on for only a little while so I thought I'd share with you what my English teacher shared with my class:
Today, my grade took the TAKS (I know it stands for Texas Assment/Academic K-somthing S-something, but I'm not sure what goes in the something spaces...) Language Arts test. My english teacher was looking over some of the tests in the class he was supervising. They had been informed (as my class wasn't, unfortunately -_-) that the test would not affect us in any way. This prompted several people in that class to put... unorthadox responses in place of their essays. My English teacher's second favorite was the following:

I win.

Yep. It seemed pretty funny in class for some reason and had me laughing for most of the day. His favorite, however, was (this is the form in which he put it on the board, and I trust that you can replace the *s with the appropriate letters):

F**k it.

I REALLY wish they had told us it didn't count... I wouldn't have wasted my time thinking up a decent essay at that time in the morning... -_- So sleeeeeppyyyy.... Maybe I'll update tomorrow (a Professional Development day ^_^) and set a personal new record for site updates. However, as those of you who've been following along at home (provided those of you who would do such a thing exist) already know, with me, if the word 'maybe' begins a sentence that has been preceded by a sentence that gets across the point of "So sleeeeeppyyyy....", you're probably better off staring at a discarded apple core, in hopes that it will sprout wings and ask you for a half-eaten turnip.

1/31/03 - So late at night that it's technically Feb. 1 ^_^o
I didn't update yesterday because... umm... Because. Anyway, there is finally something of my own content up here (other than that Secret of Mana Theater Xmas comic thingy) so you can enjoy it if you want. I realize that it has no title and my name isn't yet on it, but nobody steal it. I know that its quality isn't great, but it's all I have to put up at the moment. I think it's probably worth at least one chuckle (hopefully more) anyway.

If I recieve some positive feedback on it, I'll probably do more parts. In fact, even if I don't recieve any positive feedback, I'll probably do more parts. Just because they're things to put up on this site. And this site needs things put up on it. Or rather, I want it to have things put up on it. And I don't quite know why I'm rambling about it now. I guess just because it's what I do when I'm bored and sleepy... But I'll stop... Because I'm sleepy... Blegh...

2/21/03 - Most people would consider it the 22nd at this point... but meh...
Well, I've neglected this site for about 21 days. Yup. I'm a forgetful guy. Of course, you should know that by now. Anyhoo, though they're late: Happy President's Day, Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Birthday, to those of you who have had their birthdays at some point before I said this. Regardless, I've started working on a Chrono Trigger fanfic just because I felt like it and inspiration hit me (it HURT!). All I've got down is Chapter 1 so far, but I think it's starting out well. Enjoy! And, as always, feedback is always appreciated. In fact, e-mails of any kind that are about this site are always appreciated. Because then I know that people are actually viewing this site and it ISN'T just my imagination that the hits meter at the bottom of the page is slowly increasing.

Now, onto other things: For English, I recently had to read The Great Gatsby. T'was not too great a novel, on the grounds that it wasn't particularly cool and wasn't at all funny. However, I suggested the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy as the final novel in my teacher's 'Reading Club', a special (by which I do NOT mean retarded) club in which participation garners you bonus points. I would take advantage of these, but I lack the time and don't really need it, anyway.

Anyhoo, after reading the novel, we recieved no test on what was covered (yay!), but we instead got a project that was worth more and would probably require more effort than studying (boo!). However, my teacher was open to suggestions and, by approving mine as a possibility, cemented his place at the top of the hierarchy of the coolest teachers who I have every had. Kudos to you. Kudos, I say!

Also, to celebrate the end of The Great Gatsby, we watched the movie, Being There. Much of it was pretty damn amusing and enjoyable. Here's an example of the type of humor it contained:

Reporter: "Mr. Chauncy? Have you ever slept with another man?"
Chauncy: "Is there a television upstairs?"
Reporter: "Err... Yes, I believe so. Anyway, Mr. Chauncy, have you ever slept with another man?"
Chauncy: "I like to watch." (Chauncy has a mental disorder. I'm not quite sure what it is, though...)
Reporter: pauses, "You... do?"
Chauncy: "Yes. I like that very much."
Reporter, looking very happy: "I'll get Larry!"

Yep. Not for everyone, but not too bad. The ending was screwy, though. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. The bloopers afterwards stripped it of any seriousness it might have possessed, too.

Oh yeah. And I've been playing FFIV (well, actually FF II on the SNES...) some lately. So, now to say a couple of things:
1) Four words to Kainazzo: Sucks to be you! One blast of Bolt 3 is more than you can handle? That is beyond sad! I'm not saying I could take it, but I'm not an elemental Fiend now am I?
2) The duping trick is roxor, though I haven't gotten to use it a whole lot. ^_^ I plan to use it liberally once Cecil gets the Excalibur/Crystal Sword. Then Edge can come in REAL handy. ^_^

Hmm... I feel like I've forgotten something... Ah yes. Everybody go read Captain SNES, for I deem it 1337. Oh yes. And everbody go to Phylomortis.com and download the newest version of A Blurred Line because it is, indisputedly, very 1337.

Well, I think that's everything, so, until the next time I post: Farewell.

2/28/03 - So late it's technically March now...
It's only been a week! Yay! I'm getting into more of a routine again! w00t! But, enough about that (since it's happened quite a few times before) and on to something more out of the ordinary: accompanying updates of downloadable goodies!

That's right! First, as promised (I think), here's my Great Gatsby Project! Also, something that I had last Saturday, but failed to put up: Chapter 2 of The Heir of Zeal! This chapter's shorter and much less happens in it, but it conveys far more emotion than the first chapter and gives the basic mindset of one of the main characters who will be very important in a few chapters. Or maybe a couple... or maybe 10 or so... I'm not really sure how I'm going to plan out the chapters. I'll just put things in as they come to me...

Anyway, on to the next updates. Two friends of mine, EBMinion/EBMaster and Skullrama have worked on a mod for BESM called Dark Generals, in which players essentially take on the roles of Sailor Moonesque villains. It's only been playtested a little, but it was a lot of fun for all involved. In no way enjoyable for my character, Shazar, but very amusing for everyone else. Here's the overview and here're the unique attributes and defects.

Well, I think that's all, although I guess I could reccomend Kid Radd because I don't think I did before.

Once again, I bid all of my non-existant fans farewell. Farewell.

3/2/03 - It's officially March now...
It's only been 2 days! Yay!

But, moving on, Chapter 3 of The Heir of Zeal is complete! I finished it not 10 minutes ago and now it goes up. w00t! Unfortunately, it's all that goes up. However, you can all be happy that, unlike the typical times that I update (as can be seen from well over 50% of my past updates...) you're at least getting something this time!

Will this develop into a regular thing? It's a new and interesting concept to me, this updating-and-putting-something-up-on-the-page-at-the-same-time and I'm not sure if I'm going to implement it regularly. Will I toy with it a bit more than I have? Of course. How often do you expect this to happen? Despite how little it's saying, my reply is: More than in the past! Will these pointless questions that you non-existant readers aren't asking because you aren't actually there because nobody ever comes here continue? No. They will not.

Anyway, now I shall babble a little bit about Chapter 3 because I feel like it. This chapter is a bit longer than Chapter 2, quite a bit shorter than Chapter 1 and, I hope, much more amusing than either of themWell, now that I've babbled about that for no reason, enjoy the new chapter! And send me feedback! Or don't! I've put up with not having any for too long to care now!

And one final thing: Ami-san, on the off chance that you're reading this: GIVE ME BACK MY SLAYERS TAPE!!

That is all. Peace out!* ^_^

*I do not, nor will I ever, know why I said that...

3/19/03 - It's actually the 20th...
Ha ha ha... Well, I guess that whole updating fairly consistently thing died again...

Anyway, I would have updated a little while ago, but a certain circumstance beyond my control *coughtripodmakingithardtoaccesswebhousekeepercough* has prevented it. That's right. For once it's neither my fault, nor is it the fault of schoolwork.

However, all that aside, Chapter 4 of The Heir of Zeal is now available for your reading pleasure or lack thereof. Also, a friend of mine, EB Minion fairly recently got his own webpage. Pathetically, it's existed not even a full half of a month now and it already has more stuff up there than I believe I did in my first six months... not counting updates, anyway...

Oh yes. And help build my army if you're bored. Now, you could say that I'm being evil by asking that you click a link that will help me advance myself on an online game of little importance to anybody, but at least I didn't disguise it as something cool like a certain author of a popular webcomic did once...

But, enough of the minor Clevinger bashing and onto something that could possibly concern you. You may recall me saying something about a Dark Generals BESM mod a friend of mine, Skullrama (whose e-mail address I do not know) was working on with help from EB Minion. Well, EB has put the rules of a Slayers BESM mod on his site, so I thought I might as well buy into this little fad amongst the geeky and make my own mod. I thought it was completely original (other than a few parts which I admitted had probably been subconsciously borrowed from Yu-Gi-Oh) until Skullrama, who is an otaku, pointed out to me that the game that's involved in the mod is similar to Angelic Layer, which I hadn't heard of until he mentioned it.

Does this mean anything? Not really. It just gives you a vague idea of what it might be like when I choose to release the mod to my little spot on the web, i.e. here.

Well, that's about it, although, in a few days (or maybe tomorrow) I will likely change the appearance of this site. Such things will include changing the background color, moving almost all of the updates on this page you're reading into an Updates section that I will create, updating the Links section, adding a Stories section for my fanfic, and a variety of other little thingies. Maybe.

A few closing thoughts: Yay for the new DBZ episodes and the new show (which possesses a name that now escapes me) Toonami is currently showing! w00t!

And that's really all. Bye for now...

Well, I think that's all, although I guess I could reccomend Kid Radd because I don't think I did before.

Once again, I bid all of my non-existant fans farewell. Farewell.

3/2/03 - It's officially March now...
It's only been 2 days! Yay!

And one final thing: Ami-san, on the off chance that you're reading this: GIVE ME BACK MY SLAYERS TAPE!!

That is all. Peace out!* ^_^

*I do not, nor will I ever, know why I said that...

3/19/03 - It's actually the 20th...
Ha ha ha... Well, I guess that whole updating fairly consistently thing died again...

Does this mean anything? Not really. It just gives you a vague idea of what it might be like when I choose to release the mod to my little spot on the web, i.e. here.

A few closing thoughts: Yay for the new DBZ episodes and the new show (which possesses a name that now escapes me) Toonami is currently showing! w00t!

And that's really all. Bye for now...

5/9/03
^_^o Heh... So I'm back into the old swing of forgetting that this site exists for over a month... Not that there's anybody out there who regularly visits this site to care, of course...

Anyway, not much has been missed. At UIL, the Bellaire High School Orchestra got all 1s in both concert and sight-reading, despite the fact that I dropped my bow about halfway through the first movement of Vivaldi's Summer. ^_^o

The semi/kinda-weekly BESM session that I have with my friends EBMinion, Skullrama and Starfe took an interesting turn when both of the primary main characters, Seishiro and Narouku perished in the same duel recently. Not much has yet happened since, other than my character, Tem Ko, having a ninja named Ryo insist that Tem be his master, and the entire group having a little rest at Ryo's place.

Ah yes, and do you recall that BESM mod I mentioned a while ago? (Check the Previous Updates if you don't remember and care) Well, I've had the rules for a while (I didn't put them up. Neener neener. ^_^), but I did a major redo of them, which is worded so horrifically that reading it gives ME a headache when I try to comprehend it. And I know what it's trying to say... Until I get around to doing the retyping-in-a-way-that-others-and-myself-can-grasp, nobody other than myself and EBMinion, who brought the horrible incoherentness of it to my attention, are allowed to see it. And considering the headache it gave him the last time he tried to figure out what it was saying thanks to my wretched phrasing, I'll presume that only I will be looking at it.

Well, I can't think of anything more to say. Other than that I have a Tae Kwon Do tournament to go to tomorrow. And I hope I won't embarress myself TOO thoroughly... ^_^o Cya when I cya... you nonexistant people, you...

5/16/03
Hah! Updates within a week! Take that, non believers... who, if I'm addressing you, probably, along with everybody else that I'm addressing on this site, does not exist. With the exception of EBMinion, of course, who has recently informed me that he actually enjoys my site and is probably at this moment awaiting my update. Provided he hasn't found a more worthy cause of his attention, of course.

Anyway, onto business. Why do I say that as not only is there nothing remotely related to business involved other than the english language, which is frequently used to conduct business deals, and the internet, which is also frequently used to conduct business deals.

But I digress. You'll be getting not 1, not 2, but 3 chapters of The Heir of Zeal this evening. That's right! Now, I shall make available to everybody who frequents this site and not fanfiction.net can see Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Two interesting things to note are that #s 5 and 6 have been available at fanfiction.net for about a week now and, being the callous bastard that I am, I have failed to upload them here before now! *is booed* But, at least I'm giving you chapter 7 before them! *silence due to lack of people to cheer, but, interestingly enough, the non-existant people can still boo*

Anyhoo... There are actually two more things other than that first one to mention. The second/first concerns fanfiction.net, where I have recieved some 5 or 6 reviews from... one person! I mean, Hell Hades, I really appreciate your support, but... Come on! And, while I'm addressing you (though whether or not you actually see the addressing remains to be seen...) I might as well say that the title DOES make sense, just not yet because things are moving more slowly than I had thought they would.

And the third/second is that chapter 7 is the longest chapter thus far: 7.9 KB. Chapter 1 is the former champion with 7.0 KB. It is also the chapter which will first show the Slayers-esque chants that will persist for the rest of the fanfic. Some may wonder how I'll handle Dual Techs, Triple Techs and (when they show up, towards the end) Quadruple Techs with this system, but I'll simply say this: you shall see. Or, if you care that much, ask over AIM.

Now, onto other matters. My father (or, as I call him, Faja (watch Austin Powers 3 and listen to Goldmember speak if you don't get it or say it aloud and see if you do. Provided you already didn't. ... And there goes yet another little incoherent blibble of mine... Ah well... Such is life...)) was kind enough to comply with my wishes of ordering 3 great N64 games that I never owned off of eBay. Two weeks ago, Legend of the Mystical Ninja and Mischief Makers arrived, and this week, Hybrid Heaven got here. Before I go on, I'd like to say that eBay is great. When they came out, those games were worth about $50 - $60 apiece, and, faja and I were able to get them all for, in total, under $50.

But, money aside, all three of them rock like I remember them. They truly are great representatives of what the N64 was capable of. If you own an N64, but don't own any of these games, try to get copies. Because they are roxor.

Well, for the moment, that is all that I have. So, farewell people, non-existant or otherwise.

6/1/03 (I'd say it's technically the 2nd, but that joke's getting old...)
I'm not dead. No. Not at all. Well, maybe a little... But only in the sense that each second brings us closer to death. ... Why am I being morbid right now? No clue, really.

Anyway, that pointlessness aside, I just got back from A-Kon! Well, ok, so I got back several hours ago... But the point is that I have an excuse for not updating for the past three days.

...

^_^o Of course, that doesn't really explain the other long period of time... However, the word 'FINALS' does, I think. But, moving back to A-Kon's greatness...

It was a lotta fun. I owned at SSB:M in the GameStop room for, considering the number of people who were there, a fairly large amount of time. Too bad that time didn't include more of the tournament... Ah well... At least I now know 1)what a very good Fox player is like and 2)that I'm better at 1 on 1 than free for all... The tourney was FFA, by the way. ... Blegh... Don't feel like rhyming at this hour...

Onto other A-Kon things: I really felt like an RPG hero while I was there. I mean, I was there with a kid friend of mine who was following behind me perfectly wherever I went, lotsa people cosplying, almost all in outfits that wouldn't have been out of place in an RPG setting and I even bought a weapon (a black wooden katana (unless it's a bokken)) before I left. Yep. Interesting...

Now to babble about the cosplayers: There were lots of them. Let's see how many specific ones I can recall... Lotsa Chobits characters, lotsa catgirls, a few catboys, a couple foxgirls, one foxboy, many Inu Yasha characters (mostly Inu Yasha or Seshomaru, but there were a couple of Mirokus and one Kagome carrying a Shippo doll), a few Links, one of which was in the Goron Tunic, a couple Clouds, and many, many more that I cannot remember right now. Oh yeah. The only really disturbing one was some guy as Kuja. *shudder*

And now I talk about other things. I bought: All of the first season of Slayers on VHS plus the Yu Yu Hakusho movie, Poltergeist Report (sadly, the latter was dubbed; and not even the decent dubbed like the one on Toonami, but the 'I don't really care about this I just want money so I'm going to do a fairly crappy job and there's nothing you can do about it' dubbed. -_-) for a total of $35. ^_^ I also bought the first two Ranma 1/2 mangas (because 3, 4 and 5 were sold out and at the time I didn't feel like having an incomplete set, though I sorta regret it now...) and, as I mentioned before, a black katana/bokken. Great purchases galore!

And, before I leave, I shall prattle about the SSB:M tourney that I participated in because 11 people decided against showing up and that I lost. First, before the tournament, I got an idea of the calibur of guys that would be there (note: there were no girls, so guys is 100% accurate. Also, none of the participants that I saw were acting like the scum of the earth, so the term guys is still 100% accurate. Why do I say all this? I don't know. Don't like it? Well, if you get your own website, then you can say or not say whatever you want). There was a guy who was incredibly skilled with both Fox and Ness. His Ness I might have been able to beat, but he faced me one on one with Fox. You see, part of my problem is that my strategy partially relies (subconsciously, I think) on the fact that many people that I've seen don't take Ness seriously, so, I don't have to try as hard as I could and I can still win, because they're holding back, thinking that they don't need it. However, this guy knew both of them in and out, so none of the usually unexpected tricks of mine worked very well. Thus, I was at 100 and something percent while he was at 33. The tournament began shortly afterwards.

I was kinda psyched out from that and I was pretty sleepy. That might have affected my performance. I'm not saying they're excuses, but the fact remains that I might have done better had those two things not occurred. Anyway, it was a double-elimination tourney. I lost round 1. I didn't TOTALLY lose it because the way it worked was: top 2 go to winners bracket, bottom 2 go to losers bracket. I got 3rd, so off to the losers bracket I went. I had two rounds from then on. Oh yeah, and the whole thing was kinda unorganized: when people left after the preliminaries (aka the first match), they just grabbed people who weren't in the tournament that happened to be standing nearby and put 'em in. But, that aside, I consider the first of the two matches to be one of my finest, though it wasn't a 1st place win.

First of all, I kinda sorta committed suicide once (it was stock 3, so it could have been worse, but it was still pretty bad...) fairly early on and then was KOd again at about the middle of the match. I had to hold off the two remaining people: one, I don't remember, the other, a Yoshi pro. The Yoshi pro KOd Mr. ? after I was up to about 80% or so and he was only at about 33% or so. We were both on our last life. Because Ness is a tad on the light side and Yoshi a fair amount on the heavy side, I was in big trouble. However, then, the 1337ness of my skills came into it. While staying alive, I managed to work it up to about 140% each. In other words, I took 60 and he took over 100. We were both at a point where one more powerful attack would end it. And then, my 1337ness left me and my midair back-kick (anybody who knows Ness' SSB:M incarnation understands that this is amongst his most lethal attacks, next to the bat, the midair down kick, PK Flash and PK Cannonball) fell short... right before Yoshi's tail slammed me into the eastern edge. Yep. Veeeeery close...

The next match wasn't though. I was eliminated first. And it was the only match that I played at the tournament that WASN'T on Brinstar, too... Anyway, I lost that and... yeah. Not much more to say. Except that the person in 3rd died about 8 seconds after me. Woo.

Well, that's that. I might have some things to put up later. Until then, bye, my beloved yet non-existant fans!

6/15/03 (Meh... It's 2 hours into this day... I'm too sleepy to make the bad joke again, anyway...)
I abanodoned you (I could hit backspace and fix that, but I'm too sleepy and, therefore, too lazy to do so) for about 2 weeks. Sorry. I don't have that good an excuse, either. For the past two days, Lost Kingdom II has eaten my soul (but at least it hasn't put it into a runestone yet; if you didn't get that, play the game. It still won't be funny, but it will make sennse; or sense. Whatever) and for several days before that, I was working on the updated rules for Omentium Warriors. Y'see... Now, they DON'T suck because you CAN understand them. There. I'm sleepy and that made sense to me so, click here to see them. Enjoy, if you can. Also, here is Chapter 9 of the Heir of Zeal. \/\/007age. Sleep is now. And now is defined as the period of time after I tell you that I beat the Wind Waker and it was 1337. That's really all. G'ngiht. Well, after I say G'night correctly. There.

7/14/03 (I'm sick of fighting time and claiming that it's the day that it was a few hours ago... I'll just say that according to the time in the lower right corner of my computer it's 3:29 AM... So there...)
That's right. I didn't update for you peoples to see for about a month. Not that ny of you people would see. By the way, that should be any. I'm protesting the use of backspace. Well, the past month kinda sucked for me. I mean, some of it was fine, but I spent two weeks of it in Colorado and the other 3 (about) working with a bunch of annoying (not bratty, just annoying) little kids. Now, some of you might say that CColorado (damnit... Colorado) would be a nice place to spend 2 weeks of Summer. Climatewise: Yes. You're absolutely right. Computerwise (keeping in mind that I LIVE off my computer for most of the time....) : Hell no. I got on once for less than two hours. Why didn't I update then? Because I was too busy using that taime (I just realized I never had Tai food and that's supposed to be time and Tai is , I tfhink (damnit, think) supposed to be Thai, but I caould be (blarr... could be) wrong, except I'm not. Oh well. While there, I bout (consarnit! bought) Sonic Adventure DX and beat it within a five-day peiod (oh for the love of... period), not countin all of those emblems (I could correct countin, but it's not as bad as peiod, so I won't). I also beat The Wind Waker again and started on the second file where Link's clothes are invisible (oh good god... I meant his usual green garb that he wears overhis (over HIS) blue outfit witha (WITH A) Crawfish on it is invisible, not that he appears naked) and you get the Deluxe Pictobox. It's still 1338 (DAMNATION! 1337). I also beat Golden Sun: The Lost Age. If I could have done it again, I could (would) have transferred my data, as I did, but I WOULD NOT have used the Gold version. I would have opted for the MUCH shorter bronze or Silver (don't bother wondering why bronze and Silver aren't both lowercased/capitalized at the first letter and that se... this sentence is so horribly not grammar good little one bit) or the even shorter 'transfer via a cable' method. Oh well. At least I have almost every Djinn in the game. The only one that continues to elude my grasp is that SATIST MARS DJINNI IN MIKALSA OR WHATEVER THE HELL It (IT, DAMNIT)'s CALLED where it's behind (I got bored with caps) that little area that you can't get to. I'm not TRYING to type gramatically correct. Hell, it's a wonder that anything I've ever typed has been comprehendable to others... Better than when I've re (BLARGH! written) it, I guess, though. (It's getting REALLY old now, isn't it?)

However, I do have some good news before I went off on that rant that just never seemed to end. Before I get to it, I'll say that Animal Crossing is still fun after all these months and I've made extra progress on it. I also wrote Chapter 10 of the Heir of Zeal, but it's on my mom's laptop, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow. Now onto the REAL good news, though: Planet Namek works again! I think I put a link to it in, of all places (I'm using the backspace key again, in case you haven't noticed...) my Links section (which I'm not going to bother to link to out of laziness. You can look at it yourself by proving less lazy than I and scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page first), but I'll put it here, in the hopes that you out there who like to roleplay and yet didn't bother to look into my, EB's or Skull's (again, no links available due to sloth) RPG boards will go there and increase the number of people participating in this DBZ RPG of 1337ness (Ha! Got 1337 right on the first try! In your face... uhh... 8!).

Well, that's all. It's now getting close to 4 AM, which is about half an hour after I started typing here. So, I think I'll sign off soon. G'night.

By the way: 10 points if you can e-mail me with the name of the car Anime where the dubbing is better than the original voice acting. Skull thinks it exists so I do too. Because I'm not stupid enough to disagree with an Otaku about anime, unless it's a matter of preference. Well, that is all. For real. Ha! I spaced THRICE over there! So I guess it wasn't REALLY for real. Now, let me be blunt:
Bye.

7/28/03 by a little over half an hour
Yay! It's been less than a month! In fact, it's only been about 2 weeks! But, this joke's gotten HORRIBLY old, so I'll stop it... for now...

Anyway, on to something somebody might care about: The Heir of Zeal: Chapter 10 is done and up. Actually, as I said less than 3 weeks ago, it was done before that... But it's up, in any case!

Very little is happening in my life. I beat Golden Sun: The Lost Age again. The Doom Dragon was easier this time as 1) I gained more levels, 2) I had all the Djinn, 3) I had better classes, and 4) I had Excalibur. Yes. Excalibur made all the difference... Dealing over 900 damage every few turns instead of just over 500 with the Sol Blade (which Isaac was still swinging, anyway) definetly helped. Not to mention my strategy of using Lull and... uhh... that Water Djinni that speeds up Djinn recovery effectively! Not even Djinn Storm could stop me!

I've also played a little into Romancing SaGa III, Phantasy Star IV and Phantasy Star, in order of the first that I played and the farthest I've gotten into each. All I feel inclined to state is that the first one's plot isn't quite as great as I would have hoped (basically, there's a plot at the beginning, then it vanishes mysteriously as you wander around for a while, finding characters, completing tasks and gaining levels and equipment, then you find parts of the plot in itty bitty pockets, before you find the last bit of plot at the end, or at least that's the impression I got from what I heard from someone...), the second one is just great all around, and the third requires rather a lot of levelling at the beginning and features dungeons that are easy to get lost in. They're all good games, though.

Well, I think I'll finish up now... After giving you the link to the log of the most fun roleplaying experience of my life! It's here! It began when Skullrama asked me to make a BESM character because we were both bored and he wanted to DM. So... It was then that the concept and character of Shuzo Kitano was concieved. Skull's words were something like: "ooo... I like this... I like it... a lot..." upon seeing the sheet, which is always a good sign. I'm often a bad judge of my own work, you see. Anyway, then a session was scheduled, but circumstances prevented its occurence. Then, EBMinion caught wind of this when he was asked to tell me that Skull wouldn't be able to make it. So, he then made the character, Ray Soulriver. And, earlier today (or earlier yesterday, if you want to get technical about it...) we finally got through a session with these characters.

It was insane. Absolute chaos from about 1/16th of the way through and past the end, with a few very brief breaks somewhere in there. However, chaos is good, and don't believe anyone who tries to tell you otherwise. It was so much fun, too... Read the log! NOW!!

Well, that's all for tonight. See ya!

8/6/03 (the 7th is about an hour and a half away, though)
As you can see from the banner up there and the link below it, I'm supporting my friends', EBMinion, Sklulrama and Starfe, webcomic, Final Legend of the Fantasy Secret of the Breath of Stars of Magical Gaia. It's good, in case you weren't aware. So go there. NOW!

In other news, Skull, EB and myself played another session of that (official name pending, because I forgot the one EB came up with a few days ago) ChaosBESM game we started a few days ago. Not to mention that Starfe, Skull, EB (for very little of the total time, because his mom was evil and monopolizing the phone line... when she wasn't making a phone call... Grr...) and myself began a Chaos2BESM game (official name pending, because nobody's come up with something appropriate) based on the same rules of the first (i.e. one person (this time it was EB) makes a character based on nothing, then another person (me, on this occasion) looks that over and makes his own for the vague setting, and so on (Skull was the third and final character-maker) followed by the DM (Starfe, someone who hadn't DMed in a while) not telling us about any changes until the game begins). It was also very good, though its goodness was lessened by the whole 'EB's mom was being a control freak with the phone line so he couldn't be on very much at all' thing...

Hmm... That's about all that comes to mi--
Oh yes. Everyone who likes pen & paper RPG systems (if you don't, vacate my site immediately) and Final Fantasy (if you don't, vacate my site at a speed faster than immediately) who doesn't know what the FFRPG is (if you don't... Umm... Well, that's kind of my point because it is kinda obscure and if you stayed through the first two, you're probably alright, so do NOT vacate my site at all) then click here and be enlightened. If you do know what the FFRPG is and you feel like looking at developments and so forth or you want to help out with the FFVI Worldbook (I'm stiiiil the editor, desptie my *ahem* 'lengthy hiatus'), then check this out.

Also, since I'm not sure if anybody missed it before and doesn't feel like shoveling through the enormous number of past updates (most of which have nothing of interest) to find it and to serve as a reminder to those who did see it, as well as a note in the event that it, in fact, doesn't exist: I like getting e-mail from fans. I have yet to get a single e-mail about this site. And e-mail motivates me. In other words, even if you just happen to be passing by because you weren't sure what this was and now you know that it COULD have good and unique things on it, but doesn't, then e-mail me to let me know what you'd like to see, or to submit things. I'm not picky. It will be something. As long as it's not of a pornographic/hentai nature, send it to me and, odds are, it shall go up. Fan art, fanfics, original art, original works, links, Flash films, pointless but mildly amusing stuff; guaranteed*, I'll put it all up! I just want to get stuff up here and would like if I think it's kinda/pretty/very 1337. That's pretty much the only requirement. So, send away!

This is Culix (who else would it be...) saying, "Furi Kuri has been worsened by the dubbing" and "G'night."

*Not a guarantee

8/17/03 - August 17 - 1:00 PM
Culix feels depressed. :(

*sigh* In case I've never said anything about it, at various times of the year, I fall into something of a depression. I can hide it well, but, almost all of the time during these periods, I just feel like crap. This period, sadly, is one of those times. I know the reason, too: School starts Monday.

When I was a little kid, school was great. I put in hardly any effort and work and I had tons of free time. I realize now that I wasted that free time... The past few years of school have just plain sucked. The several hours a day and waking up too early in the morning are things I could tolerate. However, when I was towards the end of elementary school, the homework got to what many consider a reasonable level.

Unfortunately, I went to a middle school with, on the whole, hard teachers. At least, almost all of the ones that I wound up with in my schedule... And it was the same with highschool. :( I usually get my schedule in such a way that I wound up with the teachers that gave the most homework. The facts that this year I have to take Comm. App. (Communication Applications, to you squares) with the teacher who is well known for assigning the most work and who actually makes you DO things (I dropped because of her last year, when she was, for a reason that was never given to me, suddenly given the position of my teacher, instead of the little work + no doing stuff guy, who, despite never shutting up about his conservative beliefs, would be my prefferred choice by a long-shot) and that I have the Spanish teacher who is unanimously decided by all students and faculty to be evil incarnate also don't fill me with confidence.

Perhaps my real problem is that I take my time with homework for some reason. I've never really understood why, but, every night, almost, I am up until quite late (11, midnight or beyond and my parents want me in bed by 10 (not that's ever stopped me before, but, considering the time I have to wake up the following morning...)) doing homework. I suspect that it has something to do with my bad habit of over-thinking things, but another portion of it are those meticulous teachers who insist that you write down the question that you're answering. I mean: Why? I've got it in the book/worksheet next to me when I do it. You've got it in the book/worksheet next to you when you grade it. What the hell could POSSIBLY be gained by copying the whole damn thing out when it could easily require 5 words at the most? I don't write quickly because I've never had a real need to, and the way I hold my pencil/pen is wierd (I've never understood why...), which may or may not have anything at all to do with it.

Earlier today, I also had to do an essay for US History that I'd forgotten about and I'll have to spend a part of tomorrow (ANY PART OF SUMMER VACATION IS TOO MUCH!!) studying the presidents of the United States and a few other things for a quiz... Which brings me to my next opinion on schools: Assignments for summer vacation are examples of PUREST EVIL!! Why the hell do you think students don't revolt against the demons of homework, wicked teachers and so forth? Because we know there's going to be about 3 months without any of it! First off, I don't think this ratio is at all fair, similar to how I think the ratio of week-days to week-ends is skewed and evil, especially considering that there are few spare moments there, what with all the homework then. And now the bastards think they can take away some of Summer Vacation, too? Students shouldn't stand for it! There should be a nationwide student revolt and/or strike! In fact, all the people who have jobs that don't provide enough money for them to live reasonably well, make them work too much of their days and don't even really give them weekends and/or summer vacation off should join in! All together, we should press for a fairer ratio! Like a 3-day weekend all year and maybe 4 months of summer vacation or something! Some might say that it's impossible to get all of the curriculum done in that time. Well, maybe the curriculum (and I realize that's probably misspelled now) is wrong too! Modify the whole freakin system until it makes sense for all! As for the working people, some might claim that the economy's in no state to take a day off the working week, give summer vacations and provide the same amount of overall pay (i.e. the same amount of total pay when they were working all that amount of the week), but they're forgetting that this country has one MASSIVE financial resource: The corrupt, overpaid (mostly with bribes, of course), fat bastards that are high up politicians, CEOs and so forth. NOBODY needs more than $1 million per year! And yet almost all of these 'embodiments of the American dream' are making many, MANY times more than that amount, often while doing practically nothing at all for very little of the week while their lowest employees work like dogs for less than 1% of that amount. That's just wrong!

... Hmm... Somehow, I went from 'Assignments during summer vacation = EVIL' to 'Fatcats don't need nearly that much money'... I also think that any confusion over whether or not I am a liberal has been cleared up absolutely... At least I'm not as depressed any more... Until now, when I remember what I sat down to type about... OH GOD! I may need help, but typing all this down is making me feel a helluva lot better...

Now to change to a positive note:

Not all of my school experiences at school have been horrible lately. Almost all of my teachers will be nice or at least kinda reasonable. Last year, for instance, I had the best teacher I've ever had: Mr. Georgandis. He knew he could be funny, but he was also willing to accept that he wasn't always (unlike my biology teacher, Mr. Zumwalt, who, for a while, laughed after every few sentences that he spoke...). He had a curriculum that worked: We didn't have to do NEARLY as much work as all of the other English classes, we had MUCH more fun and we got through everything faster with the same knowledge that we would have gotten otherwise. That means we had lots of time (about a week) to review for his final (which contained, seemingly, less stuff), unlike several other teachers who gave us new material up until the last day of class before finals, at which point, they decided, we would have ample time to review. In one day. Suuuure... But, back to Mr. Georgandis, in vocabulary, all of his sentences (for most of the year) were more amusing than normal ones and he'd even, sometimes, slip in fake words just for fun (betcha don't know what 'disporcular' means...). The fakes wouldn't be on the quiz, but it was fun anyway. Often, there were also examples of his nice taste in music in the background of his classes. Discussions of books were funny and in-depth. His class was, definetly, the high-light of my day (unless it was a Friday, in which case, more often than not, being out of school and, possibly, at Anime Club, was that). Mr. Georgandis is, simply put, one of the coolest teachers and, in fact, people in general that I've ever had the privelage to meet. He is a role-model to me. I had almost lost faith in having a cool teacher, and he proved me wrong. If you have any doubts about my claims, he allowed me to do that Great Gatsby sprite comic for a project. It is simply not possible for a teacher to do that and NOT be cool.

Anyway, school's coming and there's nothing I can do about it. I've been kinda busy in other ways, though. Not that you could tell from my super-rant. The following things took place: EBMinion, Skullrama, Starfe and I played the first and second sessions of the Phantasy Star RPG developed by EB and Skull. I also finally finished working on almost everything of the Omentium Warriors Rules version 1.48 and was able to play the first session (part 1 and, because I didn't think part 1 quite covered it, part 2, not that there's much in there...). From this, I realized I'm not nearly as sucky a DM as I remembered being. Amazing after not practicing for so many years... unless you count the ezboard RPGs... Also, at some point, EB and I are going to do a one-shot BESM campaign. It'll be a somewhat new experience to both of us (he's told me he hasn't had much experience with one-shots and, if you count those games that Geode forgot about/abandoned after one session, I've technically done some, but not a real one). He'll be DMing and I'll be using this character. Is he (my character, not EB, although, in some good ways...) odd? Of course. That shouldn't surprise you if you know me by now. And now for things that don't go up: I've played some Phantasy Star on an emulator that goes by the name of Meka. T'is kinda cool, especially considering how old it is. Eventually, I shall play the rest of the series. I also played a little Romancing SaGa 3, but it's not as good as I was hoping. You spend all your time collecting party members (and there's no depository (by which I mean airship, of course...) to put them all, so, if you make some leave, you have to get them all over again!) and very little time on the actual plot. I say this because I've been wandering around for a while and have yet to FIND the actual plot after the intro. I should probably play Seiken Densetsu III again with those other two files (I plan to beat it all 3 ways) sometime... And, after working on the Worldbook again, I decided to relive the magic of Final Fantasy VI again. Every time I do... I remember how I fell in love with it the first time... Everything about it... The plot, the characters, the music, the graphics with a charm that never dies, the gameplay... *sigh* If there were a never-ending plot, I would never have need of another game... But, such is life. *sigh*

... Damn... Now my depression's shifted to nostalgia... Oh well... It's an improvement, at the very least. Even if nobody ever sees this, I still feel better after typing it. If you took the time to read this, thanks. If you feel like contacting me, my AIM screen name is: Culix III and my e-mail address is culixiii@yahoo.com. I'd appreciate hearing from anyone.

O_O Jebus... It's 2:20... I spent over an HOUR on this... Well, off to sleep I go. G'night.

9/21/03 - September 21 - 10:02 PM
A Crappy Book and Stuff

What's one way that you can tell that a book is not only bad, but actually so mind-bogglingly bad that you have to wonder how it could have existed for over 50 years without anybody actually REALIZING how bad it is until now? Well, how about if the best part of the whole book is widely considered to be when a main character commits suicide. If that sounded insensitive, consider the fact that the guy who loved her cried for about 20 straight pages afterwards. Yeees... Bad... Bad, indeed.

However, one can say one good thing about it. While reading the 50 or so pages I calculated I had to read yesterday (blarr...), I did something I never did before. I spontaneously said, "I must own Final Fantasy Tactics Advance." Within the hour, I did. I have NEVER done anything like this with a game. The game is good on its own, but it's made even more special by recalling the circumstances under which I bought it.

Anyway, the game, unlike the book I was reading when I decided to buy it, is good. Quite good. I was not lucky enough to play the original Final Fantasy Tactics, which I heard was incredible, but this is really great. I like it in many ways more than Tactics Ogre, for some reason. To compare it with games that are fairly available, I'd say that it's something vaguely like Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy IX, Tactics Ogre and new stuff mixed together. It's kewl. So buy it. I also seem to have over 6 hours on it already. And I've been doing homework all day.

And I remembered one reason I like it more than Tactics Ogre: shorter battles/missions. In Tactics Ogre, everything just seemed so long and tedious for much of the time in combat, not to mention the music that got old, really fast. In this game, however, each area has its own music (I think...) and things just seem to go faster, probably because of fewer characters on smaller maps. Also, every class has its own abilities, unlike Tactics Ogre, where every class had their specialties and some could cast certain types of magic and others couldn't. I just prefer things like that for some reason.

Anyway, I also finally wrote some things. They would be this, which I think is pretty good, other than a few minor gramatical errors that Skull pointed out, and this, which didn't turn out nearly as well as I hoped it would. There would have been a third one about Culix, but, after seeing how badly Dekanu's turned out, I decided I'd just limit myself to about one of those per night. And I didn't get around to doing his on Friday. ^_^o Oh well... I was thinking about doing another one with Shazar and Dekanu in a game arcade, playing a wierd version of Whack-A-Mole at the beginning, but that would only really turn out well if I could draw in an anime style... It MIGHT turn out decent in written form, but... Meh... Maybe I'll write it anyway...

If you don't know who Culix, Shazar and Dekanu are, I'll explain. Initially, I created Culix as my default hero character in RPGs, D&D and, as shown on EB's RPG boards and Skullrama's RPG boards, pretty much everything else. He's, basically, the good guy. I used to always play a Paladin in the beginning of my D&D days, so that's somewhat shaped his personality, though I've made him MUCH less serious and justice devoted since then. My thoughts on his appearance are that he looks a lot like Glenn's human form in Chrono Trigger (the sprite's, not the anime scene's version; i.e. something like Glenn's clothing, sheathe on the back, and long green hair).

Then, I sorta created a yin to his yang (or vice versa; whatever's the 'good' to whichever's the 'evil' if it actually matters) in the form of Shazar. In the beginning, he was everything that Culix wasn't. In other words: Evil. Pure, absolute, evil. To be completely honest, I envisioned him wearing black and having long silver hair with wierd eyes. And that was BEFORE I knew who Sephiroth was. Although they weren't totally alike, since Shazar was basically supposed to be, appearances-wise, Culix with different colors. Shazar got his first usage in a campaign with Geode, in which he was supposed to be trying to take over the world, but I wasn't able to be there all the time and Geode NPCed him the entire time, until the very end when I got him back. Geode also, it seems, mistook him for my usual Paladin-esque character. -_- How, I don't know. The alignment was clearly some kind of evil... And then at the end, the closing for Shazar given by Geode was, "Thanks to his many good deeds..." ... Yes... Good deeds... The guy who wanted to rule the world with an iron fist and, I can presume, DIDN'T undergo a major personality change because, if he did, I presumed I would have been told. Anyway...

Dekanu cropped up later, under circumstances I can't totally remember. At some point, I got an idea to form a triad, called the Triad of Fate, which consisted of Culix, representing Virtue, Shazar, representing Bane, and one other. Eventually, the word Chaos seemed appropriate for a representation and the name Dekanu came to mind. Whereas Culix and Shazar have had basic forms all the time, Dekanu has had two: that of a 18 to 20-year old, like Shazar and Dekanu, or that of a little kid. In either case, Culix and Shazar are always very powerful, but quite weak, compared to Dekanu. I couldn't really come up with an appropriate way for Dekanu to look for quite some time. I knew that he would basically be another palatte swap of Culix and Shazar, but I wasn't sure of the colors. Then I saw Slayers... Xellos just seemed to fit so perfectly... So, those are basically Dekanu's colors. He also has a staff, instead of a sword like Culix and Shazar. As a little kid, though, he just kinda flies around on a ball and then attacks by hovering in the air while the ball smashes into people. He's kind of screwed up mentally in both forms. Then again, you kind of have to be to represent Chaos, I guess. That's also his specialty, naturally. He opens Chaos Gates, which basically cause the effects of the Heart of Gold's Improbability Drive to take place. He's just a fun-loving guy, who likes to make unexpected things happen a lot. He pretty much lives to cause chaos, in both teen and kid forms. In teen form, he's just doing it for the hell and fun of it, and as a little kid, he's doing it for fun, but that's largely because he's innocent and naive.

And... Yeah. That's about it for the members of the Triad of Fate. I sometimes consider them to be representations of myself, with Culix acting as my good side, Shazar acting as the negative feelings I have, although I don't usually let them be known, and Dekanu acting as my random craziness. But, maybe I'm being too philosophical.

Anyway, I'm kinda sleepy, so I think I'll head to bed soon. Oh, right. And I just remembered that I won this from Zarla's site, jeebus knows how long ago. It was at least 6 months, probably more, before my site actually started up. Yeees... Quite old, indeed. Also, if you're someone I know personally and you read this, remind me the next time I have free time to UPDATE THE FREAKIN UPDATES PAGE! I mean, JEEZE! This page is REALLY, REALLY long! And that place is, like, so EMPTY! The old updates in there are getting really lonely. And when they get lonely, they require sustenance in the form of human flesh. Think I'm crazy? Well, when some random person goes missing tomorrow, don't say I didn't warn you!

And good night. You'll notice I didn't mention that it's been over a month since my last upd... Hmm... And now I technically HAVE mentioned that... ... ^_^o Well, there goes my chance to not do that for once... Eheh...

G'night for real. ... Or not. It seems I've been typing this up for over an hour and a half now... Also, I forgot to endorse Arfenhouse II (search for arfenhouse on Newgrounds.com) and Skullrama's Naruto BESM mod that I won't put up here because I'm lazy. And I've got just over 160 hits on this page. ... That's sad... Then again, considering how often I update... No. It's still sad... Blegh... Oh well.

Shiny things are shiny.

And I'm really serious when I now say: Good night to you all.

10/6/03 - October 6 - 12:58 AM
Sleepy From Late Night Campaign Thingy

Yep. I'm sleepy because of that late night campaign thingy at Jokoolio's birthday party last night. We all finally succumbed to sleepiness at around 4 something or 5 AM. Then slept until about 10 AM or so. Or, in my case, seemed to be asleep for those hours, when I was actually merely struggling to actually get to sleep on those, for all practical purposes, decorative couch pillows.

To get off topic for a moment: I often have enough trouble falling asleep quickly in my own bed. With the pillows that are designed for people to really sleep on them. On a nightly basis, it usually takes me at LEAST half an hour or so before I'll sleep. So, I didn't have fun with the sleeping last night. Err... This morning. Anyway...

Jokoolio's party consisted of a D:20 Modern campaign, almost exclusively. D:20 Modern, if you aren't aware, is, basically, D&D in a modern setting. It would have been better, if there had been some prior planning. As it was, only Geode had actually done any out of all four of us. I hadn't given much thought to my character other than that I might consider being a lycanthrope of some kind.

So, anyway, it took about an hour apiece for us to do our characters. Geode's Rift was a Fast Hero who was basically a criminal Typhlid (I'm pretty sure I got that spelling wrong; they're basically humans with some demon ancestry) who didn't know he was a Typhlid (he wasn't an idiot: he was aware that his eyes and teeth were... well, not human, but he just didn't know what exactly he was) that shot things and was dirt poor.
Jared's (the other guy there, since I don't think I've mentioned him before) Nathan was a Charismatic Hero who was, in essence, a rich human guy soly because of his family (dillitente) who was going to eventually become a telepathic psion, but we didn't quite get that far and had, in many cases, more luck than Geode and myself combined.
My character Steven (name chosen by somebody else at random is what I say as a note if you happen to be the person/people that I'm thinking about as I type this) was a Smart Hero (who, as was noted on more than one occasion, 'sure didn't act like it,' which I blame on lack of clarity of the situation on a couple of those occasions) who was a human scholar of the Shadow (that's basically where all the otherworldly monsters come from) who was infected with Lycanthropy from a Lytheroid (probably misspelled; they are, in essence werewolves with the Chaotic Good alignment) who shot at things, knew a helluva lot of stuff, (none of which has yet been implemented... ^_^o) had some luck at things that required intelligence (the INT bonuses sure didn't help out as much as I thought they would, though...), and could have transfromed into hybrid or wolf forms, had he chosen to, which he didn't because, at first, it wasn't necessary, and later, he would have broken the chain mail armor he was wearing. Oh yeah. He was dirt poor, too. Stupid dice...
Yep. That was the group that had potential, but would, at the end of the session, be proved to be one of the more pathetic adventuring parties of that era. I'll go into more detail about that shortly.

It began at Pandora's (insert appropriate noun because I forgot it), a fast food place (Geode and I wasted about 10 minutes making Jokoolio regret giving the place that name. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out the line of our jokes...). We're all sitting there (not together, as we know each other not) and then 6 gangsters (who Nathan and Steven noticed were, in fact, Kobolds) came in, the leader of which was ticked off at the guy behind the counter (who was also a Kobold) and claiming that he had cheated and was going to get what was coming to him. Then the lights go out and the Kobolds say they're going to 'have some fun' with the customers, when they're done with the Kobold behind the counter. So, then Nathan and Steven manage to take out almost all of them without much difficulty (no damage at all, thanks to their lack of expertise in knife usage) while Rift has a little trouble with the boss. Eventually, the boss is restrained and Rift learns a little about things that he didn't know about before (yep. Vague) using gentle persuasion (he was planning to blow the Kobold's nose off until I said "Uh-huh... Blow his nose off..." *point to the nearby Kobold picture* "How?") before laying him out and taking his pocket change and knife. The waitress gives us the card to a bookstore and we head there the next day.

We arrive there at the same time, recognizing each other, and talk with Mr. ... umm... Bergon or something very similar, who talks about the Shadow, using an overly elaborate alternate dimension analogy involving a hotel complex and islands at the same time. Then a big box arrives from somebody with the initials of, I think, P.C.T. Assuming it's a new shipment of books and ignoring the 'DO NOT FEED' label on it, Mr. Bergon brings it in. A huge freaking tentacle whips out and snags his leg, dragging him slowly towards the box. Because initiative hates me (I miss the days of Tem Ko...), I didn't get to do anything while Nathan and Rift shot at it, releasing Mr. Bergon. We manage to block it off with a bookshelf.

Then, we're told about another package from P.C.T. that's in the basement. He lets us take things out of the back room (we all left with armor, which was actually a bad thing in my case as I had chain mail; this was bad because 1) not immediately, but I was going to be a spellcaster, eventually and 2) immediately, the armor would cause conflicts with the transformations to my hybrid (broken armor) or animal (not as mobile, since it can't be wiggled out of) forms, and having access to one/both of those forms could have made things much more pleasant in the humiliating hell that was to come) and then we head into the basement. We see a lot of spider webs. We all fail our spot checks (the horror begins about now) and Steven gets his arms and head wrapped in webbing and fails to break free. Nathan kills the other one, which falls and becomes stuck to the webbing on Steven's head. Rift and Nathan have trouble killing the other spider, which bites and webs Rift more than once, and I eventually get free of the webbing. Rift attempts to shoot the spider but... umm... proves that even with a DEX of 20, you can still shoot yourself in the foot. Eventually, the living spider is wounded and I try throwing the dead spider at it, wanting to both get it away from me and do something. Unfortunately, I kinda miss and it sticks to the webbing on Rift's back. Rift, now highly unsatisfied with the way in which things are going for him (to say the least) shoots me in the foot, but misses (again) and hits my thigh (bastard). Anyway, Nathan eventually kills it. We get MUCH more cautious after that...

We enter another room and, if not for Nathan, we would have gotten stuck in the sticky floor webbing. Then, I spot both a small wooden chest across the room and another one of those spiders (the spiders are about a foot long or so). It gives us MUCH less trouble. Steven and Rift get fairly hurt in the process, though. We, luckily, find a longsword and two Potions of Cure Light Wounds. Rift and Steven quickly gulp down the potions (this is one of the occasions I mentioned about 'the Smart Hero that's kind of not', as he, without thinking about it, gulps down a foul-smelling liquid that he found in a place with a bunch of giant spiders everywhere) and are fully healed. Before long, we bump into the Queen Spider. She's accompanied by two more of the little bastards, both of which die almost immediately (gasp!). She doesn't last much longer either. This is just one of those situations where you have a LOT of trouble with the underlings but none at all with the boss (we actually PREDICTED that it would happen long before it did). Then we killed all the eggs in the back (we joked about 'losing a grapple to an egg', as Rift, somehow, lost to a 1 foot spider in grappling) and went up, ticked off, to Mr. Bergon. Rift attempted to punch him for the hell we went through, but the old man dodged. Then there was an induction thingy that I wasn't totally clear on, being half-asleep at the time and now, come to think of it, into something 07. And then we stopped.

I had brought an episode of the Super Mario Brothers Super Show with me, so it was a shame that Jokoolio's VCR wasn't working... Instead, we watched a crappy 'horror' movie, because it was called Circus of Fear and had clowns on the cover, so we presumed it would be funny. And it was. It had what most movies today lack: The whole aspect of 'not having a clue of what the hell is going on'. We enjoyed the early parts, when it was kind of skipping a little for no particular reason (it seems the editors fell asleep during these parts) and switched from a highway chase to a circus. Later, when a woman was in a man's room after sleeping with him the night before, she went to his dresser and then there was a row of knives, except one was missing, so the camera zoomed in... on the knife ABOVE the one that was missing. After that, it kind of went downhill. So we slept, or, as I said in my case, tried to sleep.

Speaking of sleep, that sounds good. I'll just let you see this story I typed up earlier and go get some. G'ngiht. G'nhtg. ... G'night. There we go...

10/31/03 - October 31 - 9:10 PM
Happy Halloween and Massive Update Day!

Yes. I love Halloween. All the memories of my youthful trick-or-treating days and left over candy! It's simply a wonderful, wonderful holiday. The fact that it serves mostly to support the candy companies (apparentally, 1/4 of all the US's candy is sold around Halloween) is one that I simply ignore.

Anyway, as I said, aside from being a derived form of All Hallows Eve, today is also Massive Update Day! There's just sooo much stuff to put up. So... Here it comes! You may want to stand clear of the deluge of links that's about to come. And that makes me think of Super Mario RPG, with the giant flood that washes away Mario and Mallow... ... Some might say that I play too many RPGs. Others might say that I don't play enough, or else I would have made an even more obscure connection. But, I digress.

Let's see... First off, I think, is the contest entry for the Scholastic Writing Competition, under the Humor category. I have little confidence in its chances for winning, but it's a vaguely coherent, nearly 3000 word story that I put together in under 5 hours, which, if you know the typical amount of time that it takes me to make things, is something of a victory, in and of itself.

And I think that's the only written work that I hadn't yet introduced. So, next, I think I'll give out the ever so slightly updated and reformatted rules to my pet BESM mod, Omentium Warriors. And here that is. And that's it for rules, as well. I also don't believe that I put up the characters nor the sessions for that game, so I'll fix that now. Here are: EB's character, Skull's character, part 1 of session 1, and part 2 of session 1.

Now, to release the other two Chaos BESM sessions that the three of us have had since last I mentioned it. Here's #3 and #4. Personally, I prefer #4 to #3, as the former is more episodic than the latter. I don't mind a themed episode/session every once in a while, but I prefer the unbridled antics of Shuzo and Ray, with no definite/vaguely definite course of events. And I now know not to leave my computer in mid-sentence, because I'm not sure if that last one made sense. Oh well.

I can't recall if I mentioned it or not and I'm too lazy to check, but, a couple of months ago, EBMinion and I (and later, Skullrama as well) had a 'one-shot' session, involving my character, Tiev Reth. I might have been willing to keep it as a one-shot, but now I've grown attached to Tiev and want it to continue as a standard campaign because I may have created Tiev and his backstory in such a way that the possibilities are nearly limitless. Anyway, I now give out the practice session, the fairly short first session, and the quite lengthy second session.

Is that all for RPG things? Of course not! Aside from Omentium Warriors, I've recently begun GMing another game, one employing the FFRPG System. I think it's going fairly well, although it's only 3 partial sessions in length at the moment. The three, which I'll link to in a moment, cover the journey of Skull's character, Ron, a knowledge-seeking, obsessive Red Mage, and EB's character, Chross, a cheery Gambler, who used to specialize in supporting 'Penalty Games,' as they passed through the game's first dungeon, the Ishten Castle Ruins. Here are part 1, part 2, and the quite long part 3.

As far as RPGs go, that's all I've got at the moment. I hope you enjoyed them. But, I found a very old award that I won even before I had this site. It is located here. I won it from Zarla's site, when I got bored and undertook the Egg Hunt thingy.

Very little to report on the manner in which my life is going, other than all the stuff I just put up. So, this isn't going to have much more than those many, many things I just put up. I am, however, going to talk a little on something that has been on my mind for reasons I may never know: Final Fantasy XI.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole 'MMORPG for a Final Fantasy' thing. It's certain to raise the bar for MMORPGs in general, but the plot is still almost certain to be significantly less than in all other Final Fantasy games. That is my main concern: The Final Fantasy series, with Final Fantasy X, X-2 (a horrible idea, in my opinion) and XI, is giving way to gimicks and impressive visuals and other effects to support itself, as opposed to possessing as solid a story as possible. Maybe the next few Final Fantasy games will get back to that, but all I can do is hope. Now, onto my other complaints about FF XI, one of which is a somewhat major concern (though, technically, a moot point) and the other of which is a significantly more minor conern (and probably, also, a moot point). The somewhat major concern is the factor of cost. First off, there's the game itself, then the internet connection adaptor, and then the monthly fee, which makes Final Fantasy XI the most expensive Final Fantasy thus far. I mean, just over, just under, or about $100, not including the monthly fee, is really too much more than I'm able to put out for any one game. Granted, for me, as I possess no PS2, it's a moot point, but, still... And now the minor concern of the game itself: gender specific races. If I were able to play the game, (which is the reason that this issue is a moot point,) I would like to play a Mithra (aka, the cat people (like catgirls/boys in anime)) as they are the sleekest and most dexterous race, which is my primary ideal for a character. However, it is a females-only race, for some reason that I'm not quite certain of (I think their culture is supposed to be similar to that of the Amazons), which is something I'd rather not put up with, but something that I might be willing to. However, the males-only race (the name of which escapes me) is designed to be the opposite: good for tanks and little else. What, really, would the harm have been in making different genders available for both of these? I'm certain that there are a significant number of people who will not be taking the race that they want because of the gender-specificness of it (certainly more in the case of the Mithra race than in that of the Galka, I think, race). But, I digress. Perhaps I ranted a bit longer on the 'minor concern' than on the 'major concerns', but that can't be helped. Well, I guess it could have, but... Oh well. I've typed it and I refuse to backspace over it.

Well, that's all for me. The time is 10:41 and I'm going to stop typing... nnnnnow.

11/15/03 - November 15 - 12:39 AM
*gasp* A short update?

This update is going to be short. ... I can immediately tell that you don't believe me. ... The very fact that I typed the last sentence and that I am currently in the process of typing this one will, I'm certain, assure of how untrue my first sentence was. ... I'm going to start babbling about it after this sentence and get to the small amount of stuff that I intended to include.

I meant to say this in the previous update, but it slipped my mind somewhere in all the ranting and updating: I said Stephen Lockhart was a lytheroid, but he's actually a lytheri. What's the difference? Well, a lytheroid, as far as I know, does not exist in any way, shape, or form, other than the grand total of 3 times that I have referred to it on this site. Alright. There's one conflict (kinda) solved.

I beat Final Fantasy Tactics Advance quite some time ago (easily 3 weeks ago, now). Overall, I enjoyed the game. The Law System REALLY annoyed me every now and then, mostly because, for breaking a certain law, Culix (Marche) would immediately get a red card, which causes a Game Over, but all the enemy units could break the same law over and over and over again, only recieving an endless stream of yellow cards. Enough about that, though, and on to my real problem: the ending and the 'continuity.' After the ending, things should not be just as they were before it (those who have seen the ending know exactly what I mean), and yet, they are. There are some references to the ending afterwards, but there's no explanation ever offered as to why it happened. I mean, I could probably come up with something of a feasible explanation. Like, the will of Ivalice's people formed an inter-dimensionial gate or they(Marche, Ritz, Doned and Mewt)'re visiting it in their dreams, after the ending. Not good, but it's definetly better than nothing. In lighter news, Babus, Ritz and Shara are quite nice, although Ezel was a big dissappointment. He has two abilities, only one of which is unique, and neither of which inflict damage. Babus' abilities are all very nice, though. And watching a Mage counter with an attack of 88 HP damage to a fighter is just so fulfilling... Ritz and Shara are just Viera with special sprites and portraits, but I don't really care. They still rock, compared to Ezel in combat. I do love the concept of the Almighty Anti-law, though.

Now, some sad news: some jackass broke into my locker and stole my Pre-Calculus book and my lock. Fortunately, my lock is now of the non-crappy variety (the old one was a small brass thing with 3 slots that had 10 digits apiece; way too easy to break into, it seems), so I expect no more thefts. Also, the book room will replace my book when I show them my police report (t'is policy to file one within 24 hours) on Monday and my teacher's cool enough to understand my plight (unlike some that I've known...), so there's no real problem. Understandably, it still gets me ticked off whenever I think about it, however...

I'd like to put up the two most recent Original BESM sessions that the Circle of 1337 (i.e. in alphabetical order (substitute 'Culix' for 'my self') my self, EBMinion, Skullrama, and Starfe) has had (hooray for its glorious revival!), but I'm on the 'not good' computer, so I don't have access to those logs. Grar... Maybe next time, if I remember...

Well, that's all. As a reminder, to prove to me that I'm not just typing to myself, I want all of you faithful (or, as is more likely the case, oh-so-very-bored) fans of this site to send an e-mail my way sometime. Or IM me at Culix III. Or don't. I won't blame you. I've recieved not a single one pertaining to this site and I don't expect to start any time soon.

That really is all, so, at 1:15, I bid you g'night/g'morning.

11/25/03 - November 25 - 2:27 PM
Almost rarer than a totally coherent episode of Excel Saga!

Wanna know what is? You could take a guess... But, since I'm just typing things that you're reading, there wouldn't be much of a point, so I'll now let you know: me making an update almost within 2 weeks of another one... during the day... mentioning that the site is going to become more organized and stuff... and letting you know that I've actually gotten e-mails about the site!

In theory, this means I can't say 'my non-existant fans' (which, technically, I couldn't say anyway because I have some friends who seem like my site for one reason or another) anymore. However, my approach, when theories take away something that has mildly amused me for quite some time, has always been to punt them out of the window, point to the nearest person, announce "He/She did it," run like the wind, get caught, apologize to the harmed theory and/or person, then exploit some loophole. Or, I might just skip ahead to the last step and save time. In any case, I'll now be saying 'my largely non-existant fans,' so that I can be more accurate. Because accuracy is... in this sentence. ... Yeah...

Anyway, onto other things, such as why it's early in the PM. Thanksgiving Holday now, it seems, lasts NINE days for HISD people. This is quite nice. Unfortunately, I have some work to do, which will probably force me to sacrifice my weekend. Lousy teachers... When freedom seems at hand, they just HAVE to find some way of taking away a fair-sized chunk of it... But, that's nothing new.

I think that I'm SLIGHTLY (alright, MUCH) more 'not with it' than usual because my sensory perception's been knocked out of whack from playing so many hours of Viewtiful Joe, most of which was spent in slow motion. And also because I've seen over 10 episodes of Excel Saga in about 2 or 3 days. After doing those things, I have the RIGHT to be 'not with it.' Don't agree with me? Nothing bad could possibly happen if you try it for yourself*!

As mentioned, I've gotten two e-mails about the site. Both were sent within half an hour of each other and, though one of them was sent by a friend of mine, who could have easily told me his opinions via AIM, I was as happy to get them as if they had both been sent by people unknown to me. There were a few suggestions, some of which I'll now describe, while numbering them for no particular reason: (1) Making it clear that when I said 'screen name,' I meant 'AIM screen name.' Sorry if that confused anybody. (2) Creating a Rants page for me to fill with my endless prattle about things in my life. This suggestion would definetly be something I'd do, except it would obliterate the bulk of the main page. Therefore, think about it, I shall. (3) Bringing into existence a Stats page, for information on all of the characters that I create for role-playing and story purposes. This is definetly something that shall be done. The question is: When? The answer is: Soon... ish.

Because of these e-mails, I've decided that the site needs a little work done on it. Yep. Just a little... Like making sure that, in order to find anything, people wouldn't have to hunt through the main page and Past Updates page like wolves in the Arctic seeking a nicely cooked turkey dinner.** So, there will be MANY new additions to the Downloads and Links pages, as well as the creation of a Writings page, possibly a Rants page, and a massive shortening of this page with an approximately equal lengthening of the Past Updates page. I'll move the links to other parts of this website to the TOP of the page, so that people can actually see it without reading about my life backwards. And, as I've recently taken more of an active role in it, I'll create a page for the FFRPG FFVI Worldbook.

Hmm... Think I'm forgetting something... Oh yeah. A Stats page of some sort as well. And that may or may not contain a more comprehensive listing of things that concern my and my friends' role-playing habits. If not, that stuff will get its own page.

Well, that's all for now. So, here's Culix saying, at 2:58 PM (CT), in the vague manner you may have come to expect from him by now : Demi-Update Week is more or less upon us! *Note: Culix is not responsible if something bad possibly happens if you try it for yourself. **Note: Some people may like being able to think of themselves as a dangerous predator searching for something that's difficult to find, so they're welcome to continue doing so all they like. But, if their howling keeps me up all night...

11/26/03 - November 26 - 1:33 AM
Big Site Update #1!

As I hinted earlier, I'm doing big updates to the site now. Step 1 is now done. If Tripod has proved itself EVIL and done what I fear it's done, a good number of my updates may be lost forever, though... !_! (CRYING!) Well... The main page will be shorter... But, if I can't find a way to get them back, I'm probably going to be too depressed to do anything else. Otherwise, I may do all that I intended to do with site fixes within the next half hour to full hour. Well, here's hoping that I see you soon...

11/26/03 - November 26 - 2:53 AM
Big Site Update #2!

Now the Links section is kinda done. I can't see the changes that I've made to pages, as I think my computer/Tripod's being screwy

11/26/03 - November 26 - 2:51 PM
Big Site Update #3!

The Downloads section has been updated, although all that I added was my Great Gatsby project. Why's that? Because I'll be adding 2 new sections soon: Role-playing and Writing. Everything that isn't already organized can probably be fit in there, pretty easily. And the reason I can't see my updates is... ... Well, I'm not totally sure. I'm going to blame Tripod, though, because I can see it just fine by going to the site by clicking through the page. Anyway, see you at Big Site Update #4, which will likely take place within the hour!

12/6/03 - December 6 - 5:40 PM
Big Site Update #4!

Well, I guess my plan for 'Big Site Update Week/Day!' was kind of a bust... Oh well. I'll still get everything done that I meant to get done. And, as I have nothing else to offer you all, things work out just fine! In fact, if you missed anything, you can just check the new sections that are up/will go up now!

Speaking of new sections, a collection of the written works on the site is available here. Also, I think the addresses of a coupla places on this site may have been changed a little bit. For instance, I found I couldn't access the site by the address I have bookmarked (to those of you who wish to criticize me for not knowing my own URL address, think about how (more-or-less) funky the address looks and then consider how often I update), so I had to access it through my Tripod account. As a note, the address is here. Just thought I'd let you guys and and gals know. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but... If you come across any broken links, let me know so I can fix them.

Well, that's about all for now. I'll update with another section and maybe *gasp* some actual content later. As usual, later can mean any time between 10 minutes from now and... oh... a coupla months. Anyway, post on EBMinion's RPG Shrine because it's cool and it's starting up again. Soon it'll be all nice and shiny again! It's undergoing renovations, you see. True, it doesn't/didn't need them NEARLY as badly as this site does and, based upon the way things seem to be going, the shrine will likely have MUCH more done upon it than the haven. Ahh well. Such is life. So, after about a quarter of an hour typing this, off I go! ... C'mon clock... Change... Become five fifty-fi-- There we go! Cya later.

12/25/03 - December 25 - 11:00 PM
Merry Christmas, peeps!

And Happy Hannukah (I apolize if that's misspelled...) and [insert appropriate 'happy' synonym] Kwaanza (again, sorry if it's misspelled...) and whatever, if your family doesn't celebrate Christmas, for whatever reason. Likely religiously oriented. And if that wasn't obvious beforehand, you are advised to hire a tutor, following the holiday season.

Anyway, I'm kinda in a rush, so I can't stay much longer. Like we meant to last year, my dad and I are going to watch The Terminator. ... Don't ask. Because not even I really know. It's probably a shame we didn't see it last year, too. I think most of the suspense/drama/whatever is/are going to be spoiled as I say to myself, or aloud every few minutes, "And HE's California's governor..."

Well, I'll give a list of the stuff I got for Christmas, along with other recent developments (movies, THE FREAKIN GLORIOUS END OF FINALS!!!, a project EBMinion and I have been working on lately, my sprite comic, and everything, if anything, I left out), when I get back, either tonight or tomorrow. Well, it'll be tomorrow regardless, but... Umm... "Tomorrow" or the REAL tomorrow...

Until then: [see the title and the first sentence again because I'm too lazy to highlight it all, then press Ctrl+c and then move down here and press Ctrl+v]. Sayonara, I say, for reasons that escape me.

12/26/03 - December 26 - 12:59 AM
Merry Christmas... kinda

And Happy yadda yadda yadda. That may seem kinda rude, but I'm annoyed that I didn't get to make as many "California's governor" cracks as I thought I'd be able to make. Yes. You all must now feel compelled to feel sorry for Culix.

Anyway, The Terminator wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (by a REALLY slim margin), although it was ludicrously predictable. Once it was known that he (Ahnuld) came from the future to kill her, things should be REALLY easy to work out, more or less. A coupla the following clues should clarify things fully before the movie is half way over. So, why do I say it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be? Because I looked at the time it was made. It was made in the 80s (or so I was told) so I feel it deserves to be held to a (much?) lower standard than today's movies, some of which suck worse than The Term.

Speaking of movies that suck worse than The Term, or, rather, those which really, really don't, I saw Return of the King on the day Finals ended for me. REALLY sweet movie. Words really can't express how great it is, which I say as one who has seen the first two movies, but, sadly (commence your chucking of slightly overripe fruit and vegetables), read none of the books, save the Hobbit. So, see it. Oh, yes, and if the reason you wish to see it is similar to the reason possessed by Fox Trot's Paige, I demand that you evacuate my domain, post-haste. Moving on, though... Unfortunately, unlike some people I could mention and, therefore, glorify *coughStarfecough*, I wore no costume. Stupid kinda short notice and lack of enthusiasm for much, both thanks to Finals... Blarr...

Well, they're done, which is more than enough to make me happy. I'd sing 'Ding Dong the Finals are dead! Which old Finals? The wicked Finals!', but I feel certain that, if I did, townspeople (in the city of Houston, no less) would march upon my home with torches and pitchforks and impart to me a fraction of the horrible suffering that they felt from hearing my 'singing' voice. Well, maybe it's not that bad, as, thanks to singing to the tune of Yankee Doodle the first 18 lines of Canterbury Tales for my English teacher (don't ask... EVER!) I got a 112 out of 100 on an assignment (which may have saved my grade), but, considering the impression* that I occasionally give of her (I know it's not nice to mock accents, but... It's just too easy to pass up...), I really can't say that she can be a judge. Ah well. At least I got a babble in, tonight.

Moving on... I also saw Bad Santa recently. I found it insanely funny, personally, but my suggestion would be something like: If you really don't like dwarf/midget/little people jokes, curse words constituting half to well over half of the dialogue, Santa fetishes, sex jokes/comments, gun firings, kicking/punching to the 'nads, mocking some kid for being fat and having a screwed up family, and/or a guy in a Santa suit drinking and smoking for at least half of the movie, do yourself a BIIIIIG favor and steer clear of Bad Santa. Otherwise, have fun at the movie. You'll probably laugh a lot. I'm not kidding about the cursing, though: It has about as much, if not more, cursing than was in the South Park movie.

Anyway, onto other things. I'm kinda going in no particular order, by the way. Hopefully you could have guessed that, unless I THINK about what I'm doing beforehand, it will come out in no particular order, usually. I mean, if I'm writing something, presumably, all actions performed by a character will be found BEFORE they die, or, at least, before they die and not for a currently undetermined period after they die and, then, possibly, after they die, if they somehow get revived, or someone has a flashback to something that didn't appear in the story. Or time travel is involved. ... Hey, look! I just wasted an entire paragraph babbling about nothing! Aren't I amazingly skilled at making up for the really tiny update from earlier?

To seriously move on, though, I've been working with EBMinion on a writing project, recently. It's been influenced heavily by Live-A-Live, an amazingly AWESOME game that, like many others, never made it to the United States, for whatever reason (sure, they had some 'foul language' a coupla times in it (though the occasions were definetly appropriate) and there was one part with gorilla women jiggling their breasts, but those could have VERY easily been edited). Anyway, as I do like suspense that I can evoke, I'm not going to say much more than that. It looks REALLY great so far and we're both certain it's going to turn out really well. It involves the shortest story (although it is, basically, one of the 'To be continued...' variety) that I have ever written (unless you count that crappy thing I made for the Scholastic Writing Thingy, which I don't), but I wrote said story over the longest period of time that I have spent on any written work before (unless, again, you count that crappy thing I made for the Scholastic Writing Thingy, which, as I said, I don't). Like the first story that EB wrote for it, during the CRAZY 1337 Original BESM session we had recently, it's VERY heavy on the angst, so we're planning on striking something of a balance for the next story.

Speaking of that CRAZY 1337 Original BESM session we had recently, the session was... just... the coolest session of anything, ever. It has, without any doubt in my mind, cemented this RPG as the best one that I have ever had the privelage of being a part. To any who read this who are currently DMing for me, well, I'm sorry but, it's true. Statistically in regards to DMs, as far as I recall, there's a 50% chance that you'll have to take my word for it, and a 50% chance that you know exactly what I'm talking about and, as far as I know, wholeheartedly agree with me. Starfe rocks as a DM, and that's an indisputable fact. The detail that he did that li'l cop-out kinda thing with the radio and the speed bump after I jokingly mentioned it does absolutely nothing to diminish the indisputableness of that fact. If you're new here, then, yeah: I use/make up words like 'indisputableness' all the time.

Well, that's most of what's happened recently in my life. Except for anime that I've seen, which I'll now get into: I finally (almost 6 months betwixt 3 and 4) saw the fourth DVD of Fruits Basket. It's much like the other 3, although things get more serious towards the end, with all the stuff with Kyo and Akito, concerning the true nature of the Sohma's curse. In my opinion, it was really doing well... up until right before the end and the end itself, when it just seemed to go out on a whimper... Hopefully, they can make up for this with the next season, but, based upon the length of time between the first season's ending and now, it doesn't seem like a second season is too likely of a possibility... Ahh well... I also saw... Hmm... What was it... Grar... I know that one night, I rented Fruits Basket and... something, but I can't remember what it was... Yarr... It'll probably come to me later, but... Hmm...

A coupla nights later, I rented 3 episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho, which detailed the first 3 episodes of the Dark Tournament's final round. Specifically, the fight between Kurama/Yoko Kurama and... umm... That wierd demon, whose name escapes me, of the Quest class (I know not what that is) who made the li'l bomb-creatures. They were cool, but all too short. Three episodes per DVD without very many extras is REALLY not enough. Lousy money-grubbers... That same night, I also rented and watched Slayers Return, the (relatively) new Slayers movie. Like the other Slayers movie(s?), Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis and the others (no Xellos?! Why!) from the TV series make no appearances, as Lina instead travels with the annoying and busty Naga the White Serpent from the OAV series, whose spells are... umm... 'special.' Like the golem that fell in love with the funky creature it was created to fight (this movie), or the rocky lizard thingy that came out really deformed (I think the first/other Slayers movie, but I'm not sure. It was the first one I watched, anyway). The movie was, more-or-less, classic Slayers, though. Many things were very funny, such as the "main villain" (and I use the term VERY charitably) whose hideout was some small hut on the outskirts of the town that housed a certain secret power he wanted, and the legendary spell he cast that could call upon a meteor to fall, like a number of Final Fantasy games in the past, but that had no control over where, exactly, the meteor was going to land. Or the explanation for why his servants attacked the villagers, when they were ticked off at their boss for not paying them ("Hey! When some crazy sorceress falls from the sky, lands on some girl's face and throws a spell at you, ya pretty much HAVE TO attack!"). Reminds me of a line from Final Fallacy, which I'll soon be turning into yet another Away Message soon...

Hmm... What else... Ahh yes! I've finally kinda gotten to work with that sprite comic I mentioned a while ago. All I've done so far is get some (read: MANY) scenes (well, they're not about many different scenes, but there are MANY pictures about each one) and some [see the parenthesis around scenes and substitute 'characters' for 'scenes' and you'll get about the same effect] characters. I've mostly organized them, but now I have to get them into sprite sheets and give them proper labels, so that I can actually make use of them. Once that which will make things MUCH more convenient and pleasant is complete, I can begin getting started (prolly). Yay!

Now, onto what I got for Christmas. Let's see... In no particular order, the big things I recieved were... (1st)Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, (2nd)Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga, (3rd)Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, (4th)Fire Emblem, (5th)Sword of Mana, (6th)Skies of Arcadia Legends, and (7th)a cell phone, the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th of which I have yet to play with, due to being busy with family thingies. I'm very pleased with my gifts and am happy I was cared for enough to recieve them. Huzzah!

Well, it's now 2:23, so more details on those presents and, possibly, the project I'm working on with EBMinion, will come tomorrow or later today, which I may feel like considering tomorrow, anyway. Enough of my drivel. G'night everybody! Maybe I'll seeya before New Year's, but prolly not!

*As a note, here is the story and impression that won't make much sense unless it's done in person, as the accent is key: In the middle of a test, our teacher got up and stepped outside the room, making it very obvious (also giving the impression that, pathetically, she did NOT mean it to be) that she wasn't really going anywhere and was only going to peep in through the window to see if anybody was cheating. One guy looked at a friend over his shoulder, presumably to ask said friend if she REALLY thought we were all stupid enough to buy that and she immediately stepped back into the room and vehemently bellowed, "I saw that! That could be a ZERO!" pronounced something like, "Ah sahw that! That koud bay a ZEYROH!"

1/10/04 - January 10 - 10:41 PM
Sometimes, I have no shame. Like whenever I say I'm going to update the site regularly.

To those of you who are new, the phrase 'tomorrow or later today, which I may feel like considering tomorrow' is intended to do what it says, but, as it concerns me, the odds of it doing so are... slim, at best.

Anyway, happy new year, everybody! I don't actually have any New Year's Resolutions. Except to take fewer + easier classes next year, so that I wind up with a more reasonable amount of free time, unlike most of my time in high school and (damn you T. H. Rogers...) middle school.

So, then... Onto less unpleasant things. Like my comments on the games that I got for Christmas in no particular order. Yay!

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
Some of you may roll your eyes, but the game really is better than it seems. However, plot-wise, don't expect much that's too different from Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Geno makes an unimportant appearance, by the way) or Paper Mario (which came up with most of the battle system that's used here). This game is a lot of fun to play. Short (I finished it in under 24 hours, which, for me, is quite short for any game, much less an RPG), but a lot of fun. Fire Emblem
I quite like this game. The main thing that turns me off to it a bit is the fact that it's a Strategy RPG. And, for some reason, I can only handle one of those in a great while if I'm to play it for hours on end. Say... 6 months or so from the last time I played. That's why I was able to do such a thing with Tactics Ogre after Ogre Battle 64 and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance fairly recently. That aside, the game is really great. The plot is good so far and the dialogue is nice as well. The battle animations are pretty well-done and there are some very nice visuals every now and then. The only thing other than the lack of 'Strategy wait-time', as I shall call it, that annoys me about this game is it's unforgiving policy towards deaths: if somebody gets whacked in combat, they're gone forever. Of course, you could just look at it like this: only if a character is dead at the end of a scenario, are they lost to you. But, in order for that to comfort you, you'd have to ignore the fact that revivals aren't possible in this game. All this really means, though, is that you have to be very cautious, unlike every other strategy game I've ever played. Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
Ahh... A new Harvest Moon... It's been too long... Like all of its predecessors (except the first Game Boy games, which I didn't really like as much as the others, for some reason...), it's unexpected fun. I mean, if somebody told you (you who, for the purposes of this hypothetical scenario, has never heard of Harvest Moon before) that a farming game would be fun, I doubt you'd believe them. But it really is. Granted, the actual storyline hasn't progressed much: A relative/friend (more than once in their will) gives you a run-down farm near a village to do with what you will. But, it's still fun. Most (all?) of the characters of the N64 version make return appearances here, albeit the vast majority in different roles, so it's nice to see familiar faces within the game's little town. So, this is just a nice addition to the Harvest Moon series. I'm also looking forward to the GCN version linking compatibility (which reminds me... I need a Game Link Cable...) Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3
Sure, it's a port (actually, a port of a remake, since this was a port of the Super Mario: All Stars version (the only change are the 'improved' graphics)), but there's just something satisfying about taking out the Koopa Kids again anywhere that I choose. That doesn't really increase the number of options very much, but... Anyway, there isn't much to say, other than it's the remake of the classic NES game ported to the small screen. Sword of Mana
This is an odd one. If this happens to be your first of the Mana games, you'll consider it very unique. Actually, everybody probably will. In essence, it's Final Fantasy Adventure (a game that wasn't too bad, but...) with elements from, pretty much, every other Mana game infused into it. The plot is, more-or-less, the same, although there are now two paths through the game: the Boy's (with some slight differences, Final Fantasy Adventure) and the Girl's (with some major differences, Final Fantasy Adventure). Some things are changed quite noticibly, like the fact that Lester follows you beyond Jadd, the Cannon Travel Men replaces the Mecha Chocobo as your transportation, Isabella and Goremon (aka Death Jester) from Seiken Densetsu III appear, and, though I've yet to see the Dark Prince in SD3, I'm guessing that Dark Lord is intended to, basically, be him. The dialogue is certainly better and the graphics have, obviously, been greatly enhanced; they're now on par with Seiken Densetsu III. The music consists of remixes of Final Fantasy Adventure's, which is kind of a good thing, as some of the original game's tunes weren't exactly bad, just produced with a relatively primitive sound system. The method of obtaining new weapons and armor is, I hear, the same as in Legend of Mana, which I've never played; you go to a blacksmith (Watts, most likely) and have him temper/forge your weapons using raw materials and fruits/veggies you grow. The levelling system is... different. You pick a class to level in out of the 6 (counting Random as a class) and you gain that class's bonuses. After you level up enough times in certain class combinations, you change your class, yielding bonuses to your abilities. Personally, I would have preferred something more like Seiken Densetsu III's, as this method seems more dependent on getting lucky that you get what class and benefits you want (or you could go to GameFaQs...). As I said, the basic plot is the same, but I neglected to mention that this game goes more deeply into it than the original. Other than a few features it's still a great game, overall. ... Wow... I typed a looooot for this... Evolution Worlds
This game is interesting. I recently found out that it was a port from the Dreamcast. Go it! It has some unique features, like some parts of the battle system, the Cyframe system, and so forth. The plot isn't too bad, but I sometimes get the feeling that it might have been better as an anime. I get amusement from this game, but, like with a number of games, I'm a tad put off by the voice-acting that can't be shut off at will. The other problem with this game is that it's, basically, a dungeon crawl. You're either in a mainly featureless dungeon, killing things to get the treasure and the cutscene that moves the plot along, or you're in a town, learning about the next dungeon, buying/selling/upgrading things for use in the next dungeon, or getting some cutscenes. I have, as of yet, seen no side-quests at all. So, I'm surprised that I think this game isn't so bad. Skies of Arcadia Legends
This game was one that I thought looked cool, but I could never find to rent at Blockbuster. It's very cool that I now have it, therefore. I get the feeling that, with the mentioning of the moons, this is going to become a 'find the major elemental objects' game sometime soon. Which, if there's a fair amount of plot included between/during each one, wouldn't at all be a bad thing. The game is much like a normal RPG, pretty much. Other than the Reputation system that I've heard of, but yet to encounter, and the Moon Stone system, where you insert an elemental Moon Stone into your weapon, changing its element and teaching you new magic. Yes, that makes it sound like Materia, but... And as long as I'm on the subject of elemental thingies, that's the main thing I dislike about this game: the elements make little sense. Unlike Chrono Cross's colored Element system (Red = mostly fire, blue = mostly water, etc.) this system has two funky color/elemental comparisons. I mean, Green=Earth/Health, Red=Fire, Silver = Spirit, and Yellow=Electricity I get. But Blue=Wind and Purple=Ice? I mean, why? It's also not very clear about what element works against what, which is a little annoying. Despite these features, the game is pretty solid. I haven't played much, but it's good so far.

Also, I bought two volumes of Vampire Game with some of my Christmas money. That is an amusing manga, in premise alone. The vampire lord, Duzell, got bored and declared war on humanity. He died in battle against King Phelios, who killed him with a spell that used his own life force. Duzell swore vengence, declaring that he would be reincarnated in a century's time and seek out Phelios's reincarnation. He would then kill him and cast him into eternal misery. About 100 years later, Duzell DOES get reincarnated... as a cute, li'l, kitten-like creature called a Kyawl. Which happens to be the new pet of Princess Ishtar, Phelios's great-grandaughter. Who has no problems helping him find and exact vengence upon Phelios's reincarnation, much to the chagrin of her guardian knight. Comedic antics ensue. Go buy it.

Well, it's now about 1:19, so I'll just say that school sucks and leave you. G'night all of my many hundreds of viewers, many of whom may or may not exist!

1/18/04 - January 18 - 12:12 AM
If you have no time to waste, don't read this update

You shouldn't read this update because it's beyond pointless. I'd probably delete it later, if I happened to be the type of person to delete stupid things from my website. But, considering most of the site's content...

Anyway, the updates: I've gotten some work done on another part of that Live-A-Live-like story I've been mentioning for a while (and that you've probably heard something about if you frequent EB's page/comic), I've gotten caught up with most of the stuff that I taped earlier this week, I'm sleepy, I now own, but have yet to play, Mario Kart: Double Dash and now qualify to recieve that 1337 Legend of Zelda Bonus Disk, I've downloaded a 'Heart of Sword' MP3 from this location and, thus, added it to the long list of things I really need to listen to (not to mention the Read or Die OAV episodes I recently recieved on a disk from a cool guy that still need watching), I'm progressing rapidly through Super Mario Advance 4, I haven't done nearly as much as I really should have with Fire Emblem nor with Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town, and I've got something random for people who missed Saturday Night Live, and a pointless organizing reminder-like thingy for those who did see it.

Other than the fact that I hope to be able to rent Sonic Heroes sometime in the remotely near future, there is nothing to report. It's now 12:25. Which means I've spent just over 10 minutes typing. New record for short typingness of Culix! Aaaaaand... That's all.

3/6/04 - March 6 - 12:00 AM
I feel a very bad modified song coming on...

Yep. It's been a while since I updated. ... Yeah. Aren't I the mast of the obvious. I have nothing to offer in the way of an updated file (although there are a few sessions of D&D that I've had with Geode, Jokoolio, and a guy who doesn't live in Texas named Kevin, that I could put up, if I didn't fear that Internet Explorer would crash if I tried to do so), so I'll just launch into a song thingy about things of late. Sing it to the tune of... Oh... The song from Kingdom Hearts, 'Simple and Clean'. First, the actual song.

Simple and Clean

You're giving me too many things
Lately you're all I need
You smiled at me and said,

Don't get me wrong I love you
But does that mean I have to meet your father?
When we are older you'll understand
What I meant when I said "No,
I don't think life is quite that simple"

When you walk away
You don't hear me say please
Oh baby, don't go
Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight
It's hard to let it go

Hold me
Whatever lies beyond this morning
Is a little later on
Regardless of warnings the future doesn't scare me at all
Nothing's like before

Now, if you dislike distortions of songs, read no further:

Culix's Perversion of Simple and Clean

My life is dull, but sometimes things
Happen and now I'll share
A few things that took place,

Last Tuesday we got our transcripts,
My rank wasn't bad, but could I have done more?
I hope the colleges will understand
Senioritis came early;
I doubt life will be quite that simple,

Some jerk did call in
A bomb threat that day; please
You bastard, just die;
I had to lose fifteen minutes of a test because of you
I hate you quite a lot

Mrs. (Miss-es)
Ryman had to kiss a pig at lunch
Oh, she hated that indeed;
Equilibrium and Identity were really cool movies
And Star Ocean rocks

And that's my crappy song! Hopefully, I'll never do another. It's now 12:57, and so, I bid you adieu, safe in the knowledge that I've left out a fair amount, like my playing of FF: Chrystal Chronicles, my progress in Fire Emblem and Skies of Arcadia, as well as other details of my life, like how Mrs. Lopez is kinda insensitive 'sometimes' (i.e.
Mrs. Lopez: "Did everyone understand the movie in Spanish?"
The Class: "Noooo..."
Mrs. Lopez: "Alright. Here's your test on the movie.")
or things of that nature. But, they can wait until next time. Sayonara.

3/13/04 - March 13 - 9:12 PM
Short update, crappy creative writing 'sample'

Today was the first full day of Spring Break and I spent it in much the way that I spent last night, thanks to my sister and her friend's bloody and violent takeover of the den (aka, the one room in the house with both computers and the DVD Player, and one of the two rooms that gets satellite) : playing Fire Emblem and watching things I taped last week. I probably would have gotten on earlier and done other things, but I was kinda licking my wounds (to avoid a fairly icky image, remember that it's just an expression; also, this side-note was utterly worthless; blegh... I'm using semi-colons too much...) after going to Tae Kwon Do class for two hours instead of the usual one.

I've gone to two hour classes before and, usually, they aren't so bad. The difference: the second hour was, pretty much, 40-45 minutes of sparring with short breaks in between. To give you an idea of what that was like, think about an activity that more-or-less exhausts you for 10 minutes or so after about five straight minutes of it, then think about doing it over, and over again, with less than 10 minutes in between. Also, think about the fact that this activity, in simplest terms, concerns two guys kicking and punching each other pretty hard and fast with padding that helps a lot, but fails to absorb everything. Odds are, to some people at least, I sound like a whining pansie, but I'm really not used to that. I probably should be, but, meh. The important thing is: I survived. Oh yeah; and your opponent, most of the time, looks really blurry because you have to remove your glasses when sparring. Yep. Fun.

It also probably didn't help that I was sleepy throughout most of it. Stupid staying up 'til after 2 AM on a school night (woo for about 4 hours of sleep... Again, I prolly seem like a whining pansie, but I'm too sleepy to care) finishing TPP application... It wouldn't have taken that long, but, like most NORMAL people, I procrastinate a lot. So... That was why I whipped this up the night befo... Err... On the morning that was yesterday. I was really, really bored and sleepy, so the randomness insued. Enjoy, if you enjoy things like that.

Aaaand... That's all I've got. I'll be enjoying my Spring Break now. Whee! Oh. And my condolances go out to those who haven't had it yet. Now, then. Off I go to contemplate what to do with my tons of free time... And to contemplate how the hell I'm going to crush Sonia, the bitch-queen from hell, and her 50-something minions. UPDATE A COUPLA SECONDS AFTERWARDS : I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier or not, but a project that EB and I have been working on is one step closer to completion, now that I've finished my second story in the story cluster. I'm not sure if we should release it once 'phase one' is complete, or when the entire thing is done, though. So, I'll let you know eventually... Unless I don't... *gets shifty eyes* ... *coughs* Ummm... Bye now.

3/21/04 - March 21 - 11:03 PM
Feeling sad that Spring Break is at an end...

*sigh* And another Spring Break, which I really, REALLY feel I wasted, has ended... Like most times like this, I feel very depressed. It usually passes, but... I just can't help feeling sad... I know there are things more deserving of my care and the Summer Vacation is just a coupla months away, but... It's wierd and aggravating... Time seems to pass so slowly... And yet... The instant I finish blinking, it seems to be gone... And I feel I squandered so much time that could have been put to much better use...

And that may or may not have the record for the most number of times I've used ellipses to end my sentences in a paragraph. Too bad I can't take too much pleasure in that...

Anyway, enough of my direct and blatant moping. I've recently found and been reading a somewhat interesting piece of fanfiction for a game that, prior to my finding the written work, I had no idea existed. here's that fanfic and, while I'm at it, here's the site where said fanfic is housed, which I should probably look over. The plot is pretty good, but my favorite part is the writing style. I mean, a good writing style like that is just a really great thing and is, for the most part, more rare than I'd like to see. I really feel it just puts my style to shame in almost every way it could. My work simply doesn't provide the details, subtlties, varieties, tones and so forth that this girl's does. It's really made me realize how unhappy I am with my style.

If I were the type to give up when I saw something much, much better than what I could do now, I'd probably give up writing. But, I'm a trooper, if such a comparison between the military and creative writing could be made without raising too many eyebrows. I'm going to look at what aspects of this girl's style that I like and find some way to practice them until I'm satisfied with my skills. I really, really, really want to get my skills to be on, as close as I can get to, or beyond that level. If I could do that, I would be as content as could be to start working on the Triad of Fate novel(s) I plan to write someday. I feel, at that point, that I would be ready to tell that story, which I have more pride in than anything else I've ever thought up, in full. Let's see, though... How to practice... I know! Fanfiction and more Triad of Fate stories! Not to mention what remains of that Live A Live-esque thing that EB and I have been doing for a while.

Speaking of EB, he's been in Disney Land for the past week and I haven't gotten to speak to him about that project or his time in that famed place yet, though I'm sure that will soon change.

I'll just close by saying, at 11:31, that, if you're a Simpsons fan and you've got a Game Cube, you should rent and play Simpsons: Hit and Run ASAP. I mean, it's taken them a really, really long line of pretty crappy Simpsons games to do it, but they've finally nailed it on this one. It's great, so play it.

Well, actually, now I'll close by saying: G'night everyone out there, and wish my luck on my return to the dull corridors of Bellaire High, my swift recovery of my current depression, and my new goal of vastly improving my writing style.

3/27/04 - March 27 - 12:18 AM
I did more this Friday afternoon than in all of Spring Break!

Kinda depressing. Speaking of which, I got over my 'Spring Break is over' depression thingy pretty quickly. I surprised myself. Anyway, here's the reason for that. Those of you who have read Rainhawke's 'Hawk and Fox' will probably notice as you read the FFVI fanfic of mine that there are some similarities. I don't believe the 'alternate world' aspect counts, as it's so widely in use, but the 'periodic changing' aspect I did borrow. In my defense, the explanation is quite different. There is one more aspect that will soon reveal itself, which I cannot fully defend, except, again, to claim that the explanation is very different. So, if you wish, commence the flinging of raw fruits and vegetables, as that's really all I've got. So, at 12:27, I'm off.

4/4/04 - April 4 - 10:37 PM
Happy daylight savings time day of 4/4/04!

And now Chapter 2 of Saviors is done. Notice how I didn't put that up in a Word/Notepad document and typed it into its own page. I plan to do that with everything else I've written, someday. Anyhoo, I'm not happy with the title, now that I think about it. If you can think of something more appropriate that doesn't sound the least bit like 'Hawk and Fox', please e-mail/IM me. I guiltily e-mailed Rainhawke about borrowing a number of ideas for the tenatively titled 'Saviors' and she assured me she didn't mind (as she borrowed a number of things from the movie I've yet to see 'Ladyhawke', anyway), but I feel I would be crossing too much of a line by borrowing a matching title, too. And some of you may find me a tad more obsessive than before as I seem to be focusing too much on Rainhawke and her fanfic lately, but, to those who know me, I have an explanation that will make some sense.

Basically... When I found her fanfic and read most of it, I was sleepy. Not sleepy as I usually am, but really, REALLY sleepy. 'Incapable of forming coherent sentences... moreso than usual' kinda sleepy. In that state, all bad things seem a few times worse and all good things seem a few times better. Thus, as the fanfic was really, really good on its own (as I verified by really liking the chapters I read when more conscious for themselves (horrible note, sorry), it probably seemed heads and shoulders above anything I've read in ages because of the sleepiness. Thus, if I had read what nearly everyone alive can agree is the absolute best (or one of the absolute best) story(ies) ever (if such a thing were possible) in that state, the amazement that something could BE that amazingly good anywhere in the world would have probably killed me. Or give me some great insight into the reality of the cosmos. Hmm... I'll have to give that a shot sometime...

But, moving on... I think the story will go pretty well. I have a tendency to start and not finish things, but I'm going to make sure I see this one through to the end. And maybe I'll get back to the Heir of Zeal. If I do, expect to see Chapter 10 completely rewritten. I think I hate it with the undying passion of a couple dozen suns, you see. Or maybe just the dying passion of one 50 watt light bulb. Still. Culix no happy with Scout's Sacrifice.

Also, in a very vaguely related topic, EBMinion got bored and started writing a spamfic recently. Normally, I'm not a fan of them (which could just be because I happened to read a bunch of ones that sucked, of course), but this, like pretty much everything else he's ever written, is really, really good. And I don't have to be in a sleep-induced stupor to think so! And the link to it is... here! Enjoy When Villains Strike Back, which is also up in his Stories section, so take the time to look at his other stuff, while you're at it, if you haven't already and even if you have! ... I apologize for that sentence.

And that's enough about developments in the world of my or other people's written things. I went to Houston's Japanese Festival today. I had to volunteer for 4 hours. Yes. Odd as that sentence sounds, it is right: as a member of the Anime club at Bellaire, I'm obligated to volunteer at the Japanese Festival for a 4-hour shift. So, I helped out at the Tea Hut, where I got to grind powder for green tea and clean the cups after the tea ceremonies. For much less than half the time I was there. When I first arrived, they said they didn't need me, so I wandered around the nearby garden for about half an hour or so. Then, I and another volunteer began the powder grinding, then sat on a nearby bench for about another half hour, then cleaned the cups. Quite a lot of time then passed in which nothing happened (though I still had to stay close at hand...) and I repeatedly wished I'd brought a book. We repeated the process a coupla times, then the time was up and I left.

The people we were helping were nice, though. They gave me a cup of green tea (which is the bitterest substance, as well as one of the most nauseating, I've ever ingested) along with a wierd, sweet bar thing, for which I was REALLY grateful, and some white rice with a very, very mild curry sauce. They all laughed when I described the flavor as "interesting," but it was pretty good. Also, the green tea made me recover from my cold very quickly. Thus, I feel obligated to make an Earthbound reference as I say the following...
*cue Earthbound store music*

The information on the back of the "green tea" reads as follows:
if you catch a cold, if you're ill, or if you can't seem to heal,
if you're poisoned, if you're depressed, a refreshing herb is the real deal.
I know it seems pretty iffy, but you should give it a try!

Yep. I opened my file at this late hour and walked all the way from Twoson to Happy Happy Village to get the exact words of that line. Then I accidentally talked to the ATM, heard that mom was in the middle of cleaning the toilet and didn't feel like asking about my girlfriend because she had a feeling the girl was right next to me, then had dad record the progress I'd made and tell me that I earned $23 from kicking the ass of a random hippy. Definetly worth it, as far as I'm concerned. ... But now I really want to play through Earthbound again... And I hardly have the time to get everything done (or not, as sometimes is the case...) and get away with the free time I have as it is... *sigh* Blarr...

Oh, yeah. And I beat Roy's journey in Fire Emblem. The ending's 1337, though I must wonder what exactly's going on with Zephiel and Kishuna... The former seemed pretty cool during the game and the latter saved the group's members' hides from that first Mage, whose name escapes me, with Bolting. Guess I'll have to wait until Nintendo decides to translate and release the Fire Emblem that stars Roy in America, or until an online translation group makes the game understandable to all who speak English, but not Japanese.

And sleep comes now, at 12:05. On a school night. Yeah... I am an idiot.

4/23/04 - April 24 - 5:48 PM
UIL is sleepifying, SoAL is 1337, and CHoD is updated!

^_^o I feel dumb... As everyone who saw it probably noticed, you have to download the Word file to see Chapter 1 of 'Saviors' (please, for the love of jebus, somebody suggest a better title!) and see a somewhat funky-looking page for Chapter 2, which took WAY too much effort to put up. Well, while I was submitting what I've done so far to fanfiction.net, I learned something: you can save the Word documents as HTML files so that you don't have to manually insert all of the spacings, sizes, bolds, italics and so forth! So, glaring at my computer and the world in general for my incompetence, I killed the two current links for 'Saviors' (I'm SERIOUS about needing a new title...) and now I've got new ones for those two, along with one for #3. And I'll fix/input that into the Written Stuff section. As well as give the new entries links to each other. ... Eventually.

... u ybn mjhbgv k,jkmighbmnik jmuhjn

... Sorry... Head fell onto keyboard... Sleepy... Damn UIL... Oh, yes! I haven't complained about that here yet, have I? Well, let's fix that! ... After I give the links for Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 of 'Saviors' (feel free to send in new title suggestions at any time...). There. Now, then.

UIL stands for... ... OK, so I don't know. But it doesn't matter if it stands for the United Immigration League or if it stands for the Universal Incompetence Lagoon. My coming rant still stands. Or will stand, anyway. UIL is a large coordinator of numerous competitions, but the only one of those that concerns me is orchestra, so I'll not talk about anything else. First off, we are required to wear standard concert dress (tuxedo or tuxedo-ish outfits, with bow ties and uncomfortable shoes), which has always disturbed me, but, lately, I've begun to accept it. That isn't as big an issue as the total length of time we were forced to spend in it. It's simply insane, compared to what I'm used to. I mean FIVE HOURS! FIVE!! In locations that ranged from being in desperate need of air conditioning to desperate need of air conditioning removal! And we only played for the fourth hour! While I sat next to a stand partner that didn't seem to understand the fact that, when the director explains SO MANY times before Sight-reading to not talk when in the presence of the judges, as doing so could get us, not to mention the ENTIRE SCHOOL, disqualified from ALL UIL activities for up to three years, she wants us to shut the hell up in there! Instead, he insisted on whispering to me with breath that seems in very, very dire need of mouth wash! And his comments weren't the least bit insightful! And the entire scenario cost me five hours of homework-time that I needed quite badly that night, which resulted in my getting to bed about 4-5.5 hours before I had to wake up! ... And, now I'm done complaining. I am happy that we walked away with all 1s in both Concert and Sight-Reading, but it was a horribly nerve-wracking evening. I mean, I was fairly confident we had done quite badly in Sight-Reading, thanks to our director's only major mistake in a while: missing four entire measures right before a D.C. al Coda. To those of you who don't know music, that means, in essence, that you go back to the beginning of the piece, play until a certain point, then skip to a usually short section that ends the piece. I mean, sure, it was horrible, but I can't really blame her, since she has enough blind spots in her vision to be declared legally blind. Fortunately, we managed to succeed, since most of the orchestra (not yours truly ^_^o) figured out what was going on very quickly and managed to get to the right spot, which wound up impressing the judges a great deal. So, onto other things, now that I've gotten all of that out of my system.

Skies of Arcadia Legends. It's really, really good. It is, without a doubt of ANY kind, the best RPG on the Game Cube. Granted, that won't be saying much until Tales of Symphonia comes out, but it is true... Anyway, the game is very awesome. The graphics aren't very impressive by, say, Final Fantasy X's standards, but, in all other areas compared to FF X, save some of the voice-acting and possibly sound and music, this game is simply better. If you are a Game Cube owner, you MUST get this. You may want to think twice if you played the original Skies of Arcadia for Dreamcast, as there aren't THAT many improvements, but, unless the friend of mine who I've spoken to about it is mistaken, this version has more bounties, side-quests, and so forth. I've gotten quite a ways into it now and I've enjoyed every minute (well, not every minute, as some of the random encounters get a tad tedious, although Aika's abilities make them MUCH more manageable) of it, so go play it. ... Now!

Aaaaand... At 6:31, that's all I've got. Byyyyeeee....

5/22/04 - May 22 - 11:45 PM
I ALMOST went an entire action-packed month-length time without updates!

So, stuff has been happening. I'll just start from the beginning because of... sleepiness and boredom. o_o O_O 0_0 See? Boredom!

Anyway, a coupla weeks ago, I 'got to' take the AP Exams for English and US History. Let me say this about those exams: they aren't fun. If you have an exam with an essay (or, rather, quite a few essays), your hand is going to be very, very tired by the time you finish. The induced stress level is also quite high. For History, it wasn't that bad because our teacher reassured us a lot and gave us a good amount of preparation, without feeling excessive. However, for English, I was kinda screwed. Our teacher decided she had to give us a lot of lengthy packets and essays to do to help us prepare, but, while they doubtless helped, she didn't really give us a lot of feedback, so I don't feel I got as much out of it as I should have. And the fact that she also kept stressing how incredibly difficult it was going to be didn't help.

For English, I wrote a pretty good essay and a good essay, but my stress level made a sudden jump as I finished reading the passage for the third essay while our proctor announced, "10 minutes left." As the other essays had taken me well over half an hour, that last essay was pretty abysmal. US History went over better, I think. I was able to write three essays of good quality with about a minute to spare. My hand hurt so much, though... Blarr...

But, other than the possible college credit, some good did come out of the AP Exams. For some inexplicable reason, as I took them, a wierd, but interesting, image just came to me as I briefly day-dreamed during and before/after the Exams (Hmm... That COULD explain why I used up so much time...). Come Friday, I wrote this. I've gotten some positive feedback on it, so you'll probably like it. I have no idea where I'm going with it, though. I am planning to continue it at some point, though. Good old summer... Being there for writing... and roleplaying... and other such things...

Anyway, we then, in English, moved onto our Existentialist section. In which we read No Exit, a kinda interesting view of Hell that differs from the images conjured up by, say, Dante's Inferno, Dr. Faustus, or Paradise Lost, The Stranger, a story that didn't have a plot that I would consider meaningful, but was the most interesting story and the best at portraying Existentialist ideals, and Waiting for Godot, the absolute, bar-none, most godawful, depressing, and, above all, crappiest story I have ever had the misfortune of reading in my entire life. I mean... Existentialism is depressing and, in my opinion, very idealogically wrong, but at least No Exit and The Stranger present it in a manner that is actually... well... good and/or respectable. What feels like half of Waiting for Godot just has the two main characters, Vladimir and Estragon, standing around talking about stupid, meaningless things or repeating the lines:

Estragon: "So what are we doing?"
Vladimir: "We're waiting for Godot."
Estragon: "Ahh, yes."

It really is painful to read. The only other story I have read that deserves such a description is The Red Badge of Courage, which I can only consider superior to WfG (it doesn't deserve my spelling out of it every time!) because SOMETHING actually happened and the book wasn't something I was obligated to read. Also, if you have never read such a horrible book before, you would be wise not to start, unless forced. It's not at all like seeing a horrible movie, say Uncle Sam. Uncle Sam was poorly done, but it was so poorly done that it was really kinda funny to watch. WfG, however, is simply, in all ways, shapes, and forms, horrid trash. I will never understand why it is hailed as being anything else. It's. Just. BAD!

^_^o Sorry for the little rant that expressed my feelings about that work, but it is one of the few things in this world that I truly hate (mosquitos are on that list, but I can't think of anything else off of the top of my head).

Anyway, yeah, I read that horrible book in the past month, but I also read a book that was almost as good as WfG was bad (I'm not sure convinced it's possible to come up with something as good as WfG was bad) : The Amber Spyglass. This novel concludes that 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman that I've been reading periodically since Winter Vacation ended. My apologies for not mentioning The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, or The Amber Spyglass before now, but... Well, I don't really know why I didn't. However, while the first two are pretty good, the third is really great. Pullman's writing style isn't the best I've ever seen (if I seem to be focusing a lot on style recently when I speak of writing and reading, I suspect the AP Exam preparation I had to put up with has something to do with it...), but it's not bad, and he's very good at weaving an interesting, excellent story. In some book reviews, I read that, for instance, when ranking great Fantasy authors, Pullman will probably be up there with Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia) and Tolkien (Tolkian?) (Lord of the Rings trilogy). The books are really the best works of published Fantasy I have read in quite some time. So, if you're looking for something good to read, grab a copy of The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights, if you're in the UK, which I know because such was the copy that I recieved for Christmas) and enjoy.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not really in the mood to properly indicate novels, plays, or short stories (via underlining or quotation marks), so you'll have to rely on the capital letters. Yes, I know: insanely difficult.

Now, onto Anime-related things. First off, yesterday we had the Anime Club's last meeting of this school year. T'was quite fun. I brought my Gamecube, which caused much merriment with SSB:M for almost an hour. Then, the PS2 was hooked up, along with the DDR pads. Having never played DDR (Dance Dance Revolution, to those of you not in the know), I thought I'd give it a try. The game was about as hard as I thought it would be for Beginner and Light. Granted, the pads were pretty screwed up (for a while, they kept registering one arrow at all times, no matter what), which might have accounted for some of my failures, but I enjoyed myself with it. I wish they had possessed a physical line, though, as I kept losing my turns to people who kinda walked over in the middle of a song. That annoyance aside, I still had a lot of fun.

Also, next year in the club, I get to be Secretary! ... and I'm still not totally sure how it happened! Basically, they were asking for people who wanted the Club's officer positions (President, V-Pres., Seargant @ Arms (tells people to shut up when another officer has something to say), Treasurer, and Secretary). I kinda wanted to be Treasurer, but, as the other person there was far more popular than me, I decided not to run. Then, as nobody volunteered for Secretary, the person conducting that selection scanned the room, then pointed to me, announced my name for Secretary, then wrote it down. I blinked a few times, then said something like, "... Alright. Goody." So, there I am. Because I ran unopposed. Like most of the officer positions. It caused my self-esteem to grow an insane amount, I'm convinced. Go me!

And I'm probably going to A-Kon (the biggest annual Anime Convention in Texas) again, though I'm not sure who's coming. I guess asking somebody would be a good start. ^_^o

And, to throw out a coupla more thingies, I saw Shrek 2 a coupla hours ago now and it's quite a good movie. I'm not totally sure how it compares to the first one (it's been too long since I last saw it), but this is still a very amusing movie that would be well-worth your time if you want a comedy, if you happen to have any reservations about it being too childish or something. Ghostbusters (the movie, not the TV show) is just kinda on in the background. Tomorrow, I get to study like CRRAAAAAZZY for Final Exam week. This coming Friday (5/28), the day after Finals end, my birthday comes, and I reach the age that is 18. Congratulate me for not being impulsive/unlucky enough to be killed for the past year when the time comes.

And I'm sleepy so I'm going to bed soon. Before I go, though, I would like to apologize to everyone I often roleplay with for appearing for a session in a fairly erratic manner these past few weeks. Things decided to repeatedly pop up and rob me of needed sleep (a coupla nights ago, I got about 3.5 hours...) far too often. Not to mention that my sister and a random friend have been monopolizing the computers a fair amount, as well. And that AIM has sometimes decided to not load. I don't mean to make excuses, but, next weekend, I promise that I will not be the source of problems (unless something major comes up, of course) with getting to roleplay. So, with that, I go sleepy. G'night everybody! I might give daily updates throughout the week or I might not. Cya when next I post, though!

5/29/04 - May 29 - 1:18 AM

I REALLY loathe the damn spyware going through my computer at this time. I had an enormous update to put up a little while ago (took me THREE DAMN HOURS!), but, just as I was clicking the update button, it decided to shut down my comp. And now, some keys close the window, so I have to paste a lot. I MIGHT give a better update tomorrow, but I'm WAY too pissed off at present.

5/30/04 - May 30 - 9:11 PM
No title at all!

I still hate spyware, but now we have an anti-spyware program, so Culix is pleased. Culix is also pleased about the birthday webcomic that EBMinion did for me, viewable here. I doubt anybody, save a small number of people, will know any of the characters involved. So, though you probably could have figured it out on your own, I'll begin by saying that the characters are ones that I have created. So, now I'll give their names, source, and a little description of each now, in order of appearance in the comic. *cue Super Smash Bros. Melee trophy theme or some other type of exhibition music*
Koren Vell - Phantasy Star RPG - A skilled doctor who travels with Alex and Sere; he has proven himself inept at fighting many times, but has also demonstrated his skill with healing techniques.
Shuzo Kitano - Chaos BESM - A wierd kid in the modern era who studies magic and wields a staff capable of transforming people into the animal they most resemble; he often has run-ins with such colorful characters as Ray Soulriver, Destructakillator, and DM Skullrama.
Hiro - Unnamed World, existing in an upcoming two-person story - A sometimes-cheery, sometimes-serious swordsman who wields a powerful sword; he is currently following the demon, Zeln, hoping to prevent his full revival.
Tem Ko - Original BESM - An often angsty, unbelievably fast and powerful Youkai warrior who was teleported from the past to the future, then back again; though he knew Seishiro, Hikaru, Crow Magnum, Walter, and Ryuji for only a short while, he will never forget the remarkable journey they all participated in.

Those are just vague overviews (other than with Shuzo ^_^o), so you'd probably have to actually look through all the appropriate game logs (not to mention read the story that isn't available for viewing, yet) that exist on EBMinion's site to understand some of the comic (like Tem's transportation scenario), but you could manage with the little I've mentioned, if you're not in the mood to look through that many hours of text. Anyway, thanks again, EBMinion!

As for the other things I recieved on May 28, (t'was my birthday, y'know?) I'll go into them briefly. Why briefly and not in depth? Because, after the recent screwy fiasco, I'm paranoid. So...

1) CIMA: The Enemy (GBA game) - A unique RPG-strategy game. It makes use of an interesting system that, while annoying at times, rarely produces problems.
2) Soul Calibur II (Game Cube game) - One of the best new fighters I've seen in a long time. Not that I'm much of a connousour (horrid misspelling!) of fighters, but I like this one more than most others (save, likely, Super Smash Bros. Melee, which I've now made two references to in this update).
3) Viewtiful Joe (Game Cube game) - Wierd name for a wierd game, but it's very cool and fun to play, as I think I mentioned almost six months ago. The Slow-Motion and Speed-Up commands are just as likely to dissorient you for a while as they were then. Also, despite how insane it might be, I've recently wondered what a multi-player mode would be like for this game.
4) Yu Yu Hakusho manga (Shonen Jump; Volume 1) - T'is good and amusing to read. Interestingly, the manga possesses more episode-like stories than the anime, at this period of Yusuke's non-life.
5) Vampire Game manga (Tokyopop, I think; Volume 4) - I'm sure it's good, as were the first two. However, until I read the 3rd, I'm not going to touch this one.
6) Harvest Moon: It's a Wonderful Life (Game Cube game) - I've yet to play this, because it's probably as addicting as most of the other games in the Harvest Moon 'series'. This one is supposed to involve the passage of years in a more important way than past Harvest Moons, which sounds interesting, to me.

Let's see... Have I anything else to say... Oh, yes. I was reminded of something recently, so I thought I should correct something that I said a little while ago. When I spoke of Dekanu, I believe I said that he appeared in three different (unless I said two...) forms for no particular reason. Actually, his three forms DO have some reason to them, and further define him.

His normal form is a purple-haired teenager that, save the feel he tends to give off, looks very much like Culix and Shazar. He doesn't much like fighting, preferring to play around with his opponents, but he can certainly hold his own, if his attacker is powerful enough to warrent it (as I believe I mentioned, he is, at least initially, quite a bit more powerful than Culix and Shazar). He wields a staff with great adeptness, but tends to rely more on his incredibly potent magical abilities. Most who meet him consider him crazy and/or a fool, but can agree that he is a pretty fun guy to hang around with. Though he's almost always cheerful, he is capable of a wide variety of emotions. He will sometimes show unexpected insight, for reasons that few people understand, at the moment.

His second form, called Diversion, looks much like Dekanu's normal form, but it possesses the form of a little kid, who always looks very cheerful and playful. He's very meek and very rarely fights, unless he must in self-defense. He has a smaller version of the staff, but, in combat, he usually makes use of a floating ball, upon which he often rides. The staff wouldn't do much good, anyway, as it cannot physically harm anybody or anything, and instead feels very soft and pleasurable, causes a temporary feeling of intense well-being. He's always helpful and, when he does toy with others, as Dekanu often does, he tries to make a point of not causing them very much, if any, humiliation.

His third form, Discord, looks kinda like Diversion, but it's impossible to get the two confused. Discord almost always has on his face a grin that's likely to send a chill down anybody's spine. That horrible grin is typically accompanied by the sadistic look Discord has in his eyes. Those who hear him laugh can feel their blood freeze in their veins. And that's enough of describing the atmosphere he evokes. Like Diversion, he wields a staff that doesn't do what one would expect. While Diversion's causes pleasure, Discord's cuts just as sharply as a sword. He very rarely humiliates others, preferring to screw up their lives, which he does almost entirely at random, though typically by killing or crippling loved ones, or misleading others in some way. In short, he is the most horrifically sadistic person in the entire world. He knows no kindness, mercy or any other redeemable emotion. He, above all other people, you really, really never want to meet.

These two other forms of Dekanu exist for an important reason. Early in his life, Dekanu had a horribly traumatic experience. From this, he went slightly insane, gaining multiple personalities disorder in the process. This disorder, as Dekanu isn't a normal person, manifests itself in the form of the two children he sometimes becomes. Diversion reflects the happy life he knew before the trauma, Discord the rage and sorrow he felt afterwards.

Well, that's all I've got for now. Until next time...

6/3/04 - June 3 - 5:36 PM
Happy June 3rd, everybody! A day with no significance, as far as I know!

Anyway, I don't have much to say, other than that I hope you enjoy this. It contains the first part of Unknown (must find a more appropriate title or work out a way that this title makes sense for it) as well as the brand-new (as of less than an hour ago) second chapter. I couldn't figure out how I wanted it done, but I'm happy with the way things turned out. In case you want it, here's the second part in a text file. Anyway, I'll probably add to that later (as well as give them separate pages), but I'm (mostly) done with Unknown-related things today. If you feel so inclined, let me know what you think of it! I'll get another Saviors chapter done... eventually. Anyway, enjoy this lovely Thursday!*

*Note: This does not apply if you are currently in Houston, Texas, where it's currently icky outside, or if you have some other reason to deem the Thursday 'unlovely.' Thank you and good day.

6/3/04 - June 3 - 5:47 PM
The posting just after postingness! Can you feel it!?

Also, I started getting nostalgic after hearing this that I found on my comp recently. It's really one of the best game ending musics in existence. It sounds pretty uplifting, while making one feel nostalgia from the game. If you've finished reading what I have of Unknown, this could help cheer you up a bit. Well, goodbye again!

6/3/04 - June 3 - 5:55 PM
The last one for now! I swear!

Here's another one that does a good job of being uplifting. Enjoy!

6/11/04 - June 11 - 1:18 AM
See? It WAS the last one for that time period!

Anyway, I've completed another chapter of Unknown. As with Saviors, feel free to suggest a more appropriate title whenever one comes to mind. Also, note the sudden, very, VERY drastic change from the gothic and mysterious feel of the past two chapters to the relatively sunny and cheerful tone of this one. I'm not exactly sure what will be made of the next two chapters, which will, predictably, follow the pair of Hollin's pupils on their respective little missions. I know what sort of experience Josh will have, but I'm not sure of the exact situation that Julia will get to face. Also, I think that Hollin has, thanks to my subconscious and all of the Yu Yu Hakusho DVDs I've been watching lately, taken a form that's very similar to Genkai. I apologize if this annoys anybody (which includes myself, as I'm annoyed at my lack of originality), but my mind is refusing to come up with anything else, so, until inspiration strikes again, this is what we're stuck with. And watch me end that last sentence with a preposition! Take that, Ms. Quaite! Your demi-hell of a grammar-obsessed English class had absolutely no effect on my right to do whatever I feel like doing to the English language, within the bounds of reason.

Also, you can just see part 3 of Unknown on its own, if you wish. Well, that's about enough out of me. Although, since I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before or not, I have a college option that I'm strongly considering (though I should probably get a couple more before I start celebrating...). T'is the University of Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, California, where I'll be taking a double major of Creative Writing (because I want to) and Engineering (because I have to, if I want to have any disposable income to speak of). That's only if all goes well, of course. If not, my hopes will be shattered and I might go to Rice. -_- Bleck... I'm sure it's a very good school, but, compared to my first choice... It's just so... There, offering very little that I would choose to do. And, if even that option dies in a fiery explosion of HORROR, I'll go to the college where my dad teaches: The University of St. Thomas. So, unless something better decides to come along and fall into my lap (I'm certainly not going to hunt after it, being the lazy, lazy guy that I am), I'll wait to either live the dream, or face life's grim reality. Please, please, please hope for the former with me.

And that's really all I have, so... Until next time!

6/15/05 - June 15 - 1:27 AM
My mood: Only slightly annoyed

Why? Well, right before this post, I did another one in which I included a great deal of things. However, as the spyware problem isn't quite gone yet, it didn't go through. Even more annoying was the fact that, when I became aware that it wouldn't go through, it decided to fiendishly not let me highlight what I had typed for salvaging purposes. It was vaguely like I was paralyzed all over my body and witnessing a minor theft. I knew what was going on, but I just couldn't do anything about it. Also, as it was mostly links to 'Final Fantasy A+' on Newgrounds.com and to Bob and George (both of which I'm pretty sure most people have seen by now), as well as quite a large amount of meaningless factoids about the stuff on my site and the space it takes up, I didn't really care. So, I'll just give you this link to the updated Unknown document (currently 105.9 KB in size), and this link to chapter 4 on its own (over twice the size of the previous chapter. And now you've taken away about 45 minutes of my life that I shall never have back. Are you happy now!??

6/17/04 - June 17 - 2:10 PM
My mood: I WAS amused, then slightly annoyed, then incredibly pissed off, then calmer and now slowly regressing to the second state (I don't care about the grammar of that right now)

Why? Well, first I was going to type out a nice, long update filled with antic zaniness and other such niceties that my recent updates seem to be lacking and I found amusement in the fact that it looks like my last update was written almost 365 days from now. Then, I went on to give links a great deal of other good things all the way, in the form of light-hearted rants, thanks to updating in a particularly chaotic-feeling mood, hence the amused. But, when it was all done, I, knowing that whenever I update, something invariably goes crappy and kills the small joy I get from seeing the site updated with my occasionally amusing wackiness, had the foresight to copy all my update to paste down later, if such happened again. So, I clicked the 'Use this HTML' button as usual and, lo and behold, something went crappy. So, I was slightly annoyed. I felt better because I knew I had saved that randomness by copying it all. So, I went to go put it in a text file, but... The bastard refused to paste! What the hell is going on with my computer lately? I thought things were supposed to get better because of the anti-spyware software!

I hadn't produced an update that random and amusing to me in a very, very long time and I think I died a little inside when it wouldn't go up. Does whatever cosmic force that delights in causing these irritations to me just not understand how UNGODLY annoying it is when I feel like I have something that other people (some I know, some I don't) might ACTUALLY be interested in and then I'm not allowed to put it up? I mean, I'm sorry to start sounding about as whiny and depressing as my last update was cheerful and upbeat, but I am gradually getting more and more pissed off about this again, like I was last night. For the first time in a while, I actually LIKED the update that I was putting up (not that I hate almost all of the others, but I just felt that something beyond my consciousness was making me type it, which always gives me a really cool feeling) and now it's gone forever. Sure, I could try to type it up from memory, but it wouldn't be the same if I did. Not that I could do a decent job anyway, as my memory is horrible if I'm not both interested in what I'm doing and trying to memorize it.

And now something else bad very related to this: normally, when I type out my frustrations like this (such as when my book was stolen - on both occasions), I start to feel better about it when I'm done or at least as I'm going along, but the feeling seems about as bad now as when I started, probably because I now know that there's no guarantee it will actually be read by anyone else. It's wierd... I've never really realized about how dependent I seem to be on knowing that, even if nobody's looking at my thoughts like this (which was certainly the case in the really early days), somebody could. I don't know why that gives me a feeling of validation, but I do know that I haven't really had a strong feeling like that from this site in way, way, way too long.

And now, since odds are nobody's going to see this anyway, I'm going to stop whining about my problems. It seems to be having the opposite of the usual effect, making me feel worse, as opposed to better, anyway. I know it'll go away on its own later, so I'll just put a stop to the complaints now.

So, now to put up the basis of what I was going to put up last time. Sorry to take up so much space with all that possibly depressing stuff, but I had to get it off my chest. With luck, the piece of crap that continues the disruptions will stop soon so my next update will actually be the least bit enjoyable to read. I will say that it would probably help if the two loud girls currently at my house would shut the hell up for five consecutive minutes...

Anyway, onto the updates. I have for you the updated fourth chapter of Unknown, the updated Unknown collection, and the updated Unknown collection (Word Document). And that's all. There were some site links, but they deserve to be put up when I can introduce them in an amusing way, which requires my being in a good mood. I'll put them up next time. And now to thwart the problem of depression by putting all of this in a text document BEFORE hitting the 'Use this HTML' button, and pasting it here if things go awry, yet again. Wish me luck!

{EDIT - 2:42 PM} Well, it went up on its own, which is kinda fun and kinda annoying. I mean, it's nice to know it's working again, but I went through the trouble (yeah, it's a ludicrously stupid complaint), of putting it all in a text file when I didn't have to. And it seems like it only doesn't screw up when it's NOT late at night, when I'm most likely to be driven by something beyond myself. But, when given lemons... Anyway, with luck, things will go much better in my next post. Also, I really don't care about any minute grammar errors in this past post. I feel better now that it's gone through (despite the CRAPPY music my sister and her friend are listening to off of VH1 behind me, somehow hearing it over their screeching back and forth to each other, which just now included something like, "He can't sing like that! He's asian!" which makes me want to bang my head on the wall from the stupidity of it all), so I want little to bring me down. And now to include one (almost) last thing... Boobies.

And that was the entire fault of my having completed Bob and George yesterday. It's funny, it's the first sprite comic ever, and its URL (www.bobandgeorge.com) is easy to remember, which makes three good reasons that I didn't set off with 1), 2), and 3) for some reason to go see it.

And everything from 'Boobies' onward is a taste of what the 'update that wasn't' possessed. I think there was a lot better in it, but... Anyway, no point in babbling about what is gone. Maybe more of it will come back to me later and I'll put it up piece by piece. Then it can be like a somewhat illogical jig-saw puzzle!

Also, that made me think of some little project I might start someday. I recall seeing it elsewhere over a year ago about the Legend of Zelda. Anyway, it's not really original, so, if you know you're that kind of person, don't think too much about what it is. It's not something that will blow your mind in the least. So, just look for that (maybe) eventually. ... ^_^ Provided of course that I remember what I was talking about. It'll probably involve some competition, but I'll have to get a prize ready for that. If there's a prize at all. ^_^o And I'm probably going to look at this paragraph later and wonder what in god's name I was thinking. So, this is really the end. Goodbye for now!

6/27/04 - June 27 - 3:14 AM
Very, very, very minor celebration time: Not counting the Previous Updates page, this main page now has a size of 100.8 KB!

Yay! This will be celebrated by my moving a number of the old updates still on this page to the Previous Updates page (or is it Old Updates...) sometime in the near future. Happy!

Anyway, onto things more substantial than how long this page takes to load/how long the li'l scroll bar on the right side of the screen is. I now give to you... Chapter 4 of Unknown! Now, if that doesn't make you do a double-take, look over it again and think about it for a second.

"But Culix," you may be saying, "You gave us Chapter 4 last time! Twice!" And you're right. Well, you were right, rather, because it's now thrice, not twice. Also, there is a good reason for this giving of the same chapter again: It's not the same chapter any more. Now, before you begin slamming your head against a hard object in hopes that this will make sense (if you happen to be the kind of person who thinks that way), I'll explain it. Basically, I wrote Chapter 5 (note how there's no linky!), detailing most of Julia's task, but, near the end, I got an interesting idea that, when looking it over, seems to work better if it's read before the chapter of Josh's task (the previous Chapter 4). So, I swapped them. This required a lot of uploading on my part, as well as some meticulous copying and pasting, so you'd better enjoy.

But, in the end, it was done. And I was pleased. I like the chapter detailing the first part of Julia's task better than that of Josh's. Probably because Julia spends relatively little time chatting with the Mayor. I also feel like that particular story section is going to possess more of a personal touch, as Josh's section involved too many people without very much significance to the story. Granted, when their deaths were actually described with some detail, it felt much better than before (basically, "These are the victims. Moving on..."), but... And, speaking of Josh's story, I suspect that a number of people think I'm a bit of a hack for involving what I did as the explanation for the deaths in town, so I'm hoping that chapter 6 will make you think better of me, when you see where I'm going with this.

Speaking of where I'm going with this, I also have an idea of what's going to happen long term in the story. No specifics on some things yet, but I think it will turn out quite well for my first complete (good) work. I get the feeling that some people will be a tad annoyed by at least one loose end that's left over. If it will reassure you, I'm not sure that this will be the only thing that I write with Josh as the main character. If I get an idea to use him again, maybe the problem will cease being a problem. But... Well, you never know...

Anyway, enough of my drivel for the work that shall eventually be renamed. ... Unless inspiration strikes and the title becomes appropriate. Which would be kinda cool, in a way...

But, onto the update thingies for Unknown: Chapter 5 (Josh's task; two new, but non-essential paragraphs, though: read from when he enters Vesta's house until just before the doctors begin talking), Chapter 4 (Julia's task, or at least the first half/third of it), Chapter Collection (.html version; Now has 5 and 4 and 5 are up to date), Chapter Collection (.doc version; Now has... ... Look at the last one's description), Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3 (A slight change has been made to their URLs - 2 and 3 had the '_' between 'unknown' and the roman numeral replaced with a '-' like 4 and 5 have; 1's 'Unknown' became 'unknown-i'. All these changes were to instill conformity. YOU CANNOT ESCAPE IT'S POWER!! PH33R IT!!!11!!! ... And I don't know what that was... Also, now that I think about it, it's kinda conveniant to have all of the chapters up to date and in once paragraph. Err... I mean... I MEANT to do it like that. Eheh heh... Also, this comment in the parenthesis (which may not be correct. And look! A comment within a comment!) is getting pretty long, so I think I'll stop).

Aaaand... That's about it. Oh, yeah. Before I forget, I saw something interesting on the statistics page:
Disk Space Quota - 20 MB
Disk Space Used - 8.0 MB (Yay!)
The equivalent of the punchline is coming up next.
Space Remaining - 13 MB (Hmm... 20... minus... 8... equals... ... 13! Go Tripod!)

And now I'm actually done. See you.

6/29/04 - June 29 - 10:52 AM
American Ranma 1/2 Voice Actors'/Actresses' Resume Entries That Amused Me In Some Typically Minor Way, Shape, Or Form

That pretty much sums this up. I have nothing GOOD to give you, so I'll just throw out something RANDOM and hope it's almost as good. Basically, I was watching the fifth DVD of Ranma 1/2's 5th season, then I got bored and looked at its Cast List (they only have the dubbed cast list, which I freely admit I haven't really listened to before, as it happens) and I found some of them minutely interesting to kinda amusing. The format is as follows:
Actor/Actress (Ranma 1/2 character/characters) - Other Show - Character/Characters on that show
- Other Show (if any) - Character/... you know

So, enjoy!

Richard Ian Cox (Male Ranma) - Inuyasha - Inuyasha (protagonist in two of Rumiko Takahashi's most popular works)

Willow Johnson (Kasumi Tendo) - Inuyasha - Kikyo (Hmm... One of the nicest people in one... And kinda evil in another...)

Robert D. Smith (Genma Saotome and Sasuke Sarugakure) - Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture - Big Bear / Chang Sinzan (Feels a bit odd, somehow...)

David Kaye (Soun Tendo) - Inuyasha - Sesshomaru (Something about Soun and Sesshomaru being voiced by the same guy feels wrong...)
X-Men Evolution - Professor Charles Xavier (See above comment, but replace Sesshomaru with Xavier. ... What? I'm lazy...)

Michael Donovan (Ryoga Hibiki / P-Chan) - The Littlest Pet Shop (... I wasn't aware that was a show...) - A Pig (... Hmm...)
Megaman - Ring Man (Nothing of any real interest. I just haven't heard of the Megaman show for a while)
Reboot - Phong / Mike the TV / Cecil (Again, nothing of too much interest. I simply forgot that Reboot had ever existed)
The Wizard of Oz - Lion (For the third time, there's no real interest. I've just heard nothing of the show in some time)
Captain N: The Game Master - Eggplant Wizard (Once again, I haven't heard of this show in a while, but it's also kinda interesting to think about all of the various characters this person has voiced. Also, it seems that he has directed several shows and features, which include Reboot and Metal: F.A.K.K. 2000)

Ted Cole (Tatewaki Kuno) - Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z (1996-1998) - Yamcha (Just thinking about the differences and similarities between Kuno and Yamcha...)
Dragon Ball Z: The Movie-The Tree of Might - Yamcha / Turles (See above comment. And I don't really care about Turles)

Paul Dobson (Happosai) - Inuyasha - Myoga / Naraku (Strange... I mean, if you combine Myoga and Naraku, then throw in a bit of Miroku, you have something very like Happosai)
Dragon Ball Z - Zarbon (... It's strange because, other than the evil, Happosai and Zarbon have very, very little in common)

Cathy Weseluck (Shampoo / Cat) - Dragon Ball Z - Chiaotzu / Puar (Just... Feels strange...)

Brad Swaile (Mousse / Duck) - X-Men: Evolution - Nightcrawler / Kurt Wagner (Hmm... Two kinda awkward teens with what many might refer to as 'embarrassing conditions')

Ian James Corlett (Dr. Tofu) - Dragon Ball Z (1996-1997) - Goku (T), Master Roshi (T) (No real relation to Dr. Tofu. I just always kinda wondered who was doing those early DBZ voices...)
Mega Man - Mega Man / Snake Man (Again, no relation to Dr. Tofu. I did find it interesting that both of those characters were voiced by the same guy, though. I guess it simplified that episode (pretty much the only full episode I ever saw of the show, by the way) where Snake Man and Mega Man had their bodies switched)
Captain N: The Game Master - Dr. Wily (Yeah, I'm feeling a little uncreative with Dr. Tofu. The only thing of interest is that it's another character from Captain N (which I was never actually able to watch) and they're both doctors, though they have little else in common)

And that's about it. I apologize for this pathetic update that may have given you a 'useless information' overload. This is just another occasion to teach us a good lesson: It's not the FREQUENCY of site updates, it's the QUALITY of site updates. So, though this came on the heels of a relatively quite good update, this update is fairly abysmal. Also, to lower your opinions of me a bit, I didn't think of that lesson until just moments ago. In other words, I was including all that you see in this update because I ACTUALLY thought it wasn't a bad idea. So, go flame me.

And, that's all I've got. I'll try to make up for this with the next update.

7/__/04 - July __ - __:__ PM
Am I not specific with my times and dates or what?

As I heard no comments on the last update, I'm going to presume that it was the worst thing that has ever happened to this site, short of the written things that I did for school and, foolishly, put up and I will, thus, never put you through that misery again, until I get bored and/or forget. Anyway, semi-speaking (yes, that's now a word) of written things that I've done, I'm largely through with the next chapter of Unknown, but I can't put it up because I'm using a computer in a Cybercafe in Breckinridge. Oh. Right. I forgot to mention that I'm in Colorado. ... Well, I am. I'll be back on the 24th or 26th.

In other news, I have two links to give out. First off, EBMinion's well-deserved break has ended and the comics have resumed at his site, so stop by there and enjoy. Also, I realize that I haven't endorsed Jester Shadow Productions yet. With the insane number of people who frequent my site (if Tripod measures that, I don't know how to access it, but I'm willing to take a leap of faith and say that it's single-digit), my failure to tell them about it is a crime against all that is. So, go have a look around. Odds are, you'll laugh. Especially at the new section known as EiSbM (i.e. Everyone is Stupid but Me), in which the stupid comments/questions that the creators/readers hear in their daily lives are put up, along with the answers that they WANTED to give, but, thanks to their inhibitions, they didn't. Damn you inhibitions...

Anyway, I had plans to create a 'Vacation Diary', in which I would blither and complain about my trip to Colorado in a hopefully amusing manner, but, thanks to my lack of memory, I forgot. So, I'll probably just try to fake one right before I return. ... Yyyeah. Nobody will suspect it... ... And I just remembered that this site, despite how few people see it, is not the equivalent of my inner monologue. ... Well, I can still save this without having to backspace over everything. I'll just call it my 'Not Totally Authentic Vacation Diary' and nobody will be able to complain! I'm a genius!

Now to babble a bit about the next chapter. Well, actually, it's more like the next next chapter, as I'd like to keep up the continuity (of the pattern) a bit, so, after I write Julia's next chapter, then Josh's next chapter, which is finished, will go in. So, basically, that finished chapter will do a bit of exposition. Pretty much the entire chapter will be a conversation. I also think it would be good to say now that much of what you may know of werewolves should probably be forgotten.

And, with that out there, I'm off! Enjoy yourselves until I return, at which time you will be plunged into a bottomless pit of despair, no doubt!

7/XX/04 - July XX - 19:28 PM
Again with the insane specificness of the dates?

That's in military time because that's what this computer in the Cybercafe uses and I'm not in the mood to subtract 12 from the hour. ... Alright, fine. It's 7:28 PM here. Which is a little off from the usual time (err... time zone) because I'm still in Colorado. ... Yyyeah... The date, however, is just as accurate no matter where you are! ... Unless it isn't July of 2004. ... But that's still 31 days... And I think we're into the 20's now... This computer, for reasons, unknown, has no calender, and we have none back at the house we're renting, so... Yeah. Content yourself with the day that is July XX. As a quote "interesting" end-quote side-note, those Xs were originally _s like in the last update. I changed them just now at 19:37 because I suddenly remembered Earthbound. Oh, good jebus! I miss my SNES!!

Anyway, now onto things you *gasp* might actually care about! There are three things to note. Well, four, but the fourth is kinda stupid and pointless, so it's not really one of those things you *gasp* might actually care about! And yes. I did paste that from the sentence just before it.

But, in any case, Those four things are...
1. My family and I (sans my sister) will leave for home tomorrow and arrive the following day!
2. I've finished about 2.X more chapters of Unknown, which will be uploaded when I get back, possibly with the 2 replaced by a 3 and the X replaced by a 0!
3. I own Megaman Anniversary Collection and am not doing that badly at the games I, for one stupid reason or another, I've never played before. Of course, I hate the Yellow Demon in Megaman I... But I'll get him... Oh, yes... I'll get him, indeed...

li'l four - I'm boycotting all Mexican restaurants in Colorado. Maybe I've been spoiled by some such restaurants in Texas, but... Come on... They're just... so... Bad.

Well, that's about all I've got. I'll be happy when I'm back in Houston and I'll be happier still when/if I buy Tales of Symphonia not long after. I'll be even happier than that if quite a lot of role-playing takes place after I get back.

So, that's all. Enjoy the peaceful lives you've lead while I was mostly absent. Of course, as they're about the same as almost every other day of the year... ... Yyyeah... Anyway, enjoy life, those of you who do not have to go through a ride across three (or possibly four) states for 1.5-1.8 days. As for those of you who do, hey, you aren't alone. Which is quite a pathetic consolation. Oh, well... Seeya.

7/29/04 - July 29 - 12:12 AM
OMG THA DAT35 AND T1M35 AR3 BACK!! And this makes three 'topics' about that!

I'm back in Houston and have been for a few days now. Very little has changed. I've gotten SOME more work done on chapter VIII of Unknown, but that's about it. Oh. And, while on that... here is chapter VI and here is chapter VII. THAT should tide you over... And since there are about 3 whole people to tide over, a number that's based upon the number of hits my site has apparentally given Jester Shadow Productions, it should be MORE than enough. Yay! It's also partially because of this fact (though, to be fair, 90-something percent because of my laziness and inability to remember enough about specific days, especially when I have a hard enough time doing so with the benefit of a calender, to be worthwhile) that I'll not be doing that mostly fraudulent (or whatever I called it) Vacation Diary (or, again, whatever I called it).

Anyway, as long as I've mentioned Jester Shadow Productions once tonight, I might as well mention it twice more for entirely different reasons. First, (or 'Second,' if you'd prefer) I submitted an EiSbM article recently and it went up! Check it out under the title of 15: Don't Try This at Home (Guest). ... Err... Or just click that link. Also, in case the children at the back of the class have lost track (assuming there really ARE children at the back of this particular class of three, of which I believe I know most of the people...), that name at the top of the page is not incorrect: I may be called both Culix andDavid Scott. Yes, I know it's a shock, but, just take a few moments to let this concept sink in. Also, if you seriously have to do this, then, if anyone else is reading this, I would advise you to pretend that you do not and not seriously say things like, "Dude, that just blew my mind", lest they note this, think of a snappy response at a later date, then send it in to EiSbM. Because if I can get on there, it can't be that hard. ... *ahem* Anyway, secondly, (or 'thirdly,' yadda yadda yadda) an offer from Jester Shadow Productions. The basic idea is that all the things that are my site (well, other than the URL) will remain the same, but they'll be on the JSP website. Basically, it will be kinda like 'buying me out', without doing any 'buying' or performing many actions that I can use the word 'out' to describe. Perhaps it will become another button on the front page, or perhaps it shall be hidden on the Crew page or something. I don't really know. What it will basically mean, in terms of good things, is: 1) There will be no more pop-ups from Tripod and 2) Many more people will see my site (or at least glance over it and decide they dislike it). Naturally, there will be a 'bad' thing that pertains mostly to the fact that I haven't made a Seinfeld reference in a while: The move will kill 'independent David/Culix'. Granted, one might say that somebody who refers to himself as 'someone/someone else' can't really be independent, but... ... I have no real argument. It's mostly just because I'm the type of person who likes a lack of change, while remaining well aware that such is a hopeless desire. I have some confidence that the change will, one day, occur. 'When?' becomes the question. If you have any comments on this issue, send them in.

So, I'll just include three more things: 1) Updated Unknown Word Document, 2) Updated Unknown HTML Document, and 3) WHY WON'T YOU WORK FOR ME, CAPTAIN SNES!? WHY!?

And sayonara.

8/15/04 - August 15 - 12:24 AM
A list of things I've realized lately -- in no particular order!

1) I really need to update this place more often in the summer.
2) Tales of Symphonia is officially the best Game Cube RPG and, possibly, game thus far.
3) Legend of Zelda: Four Sword Adventures looks kinda fun, but I've yet to play it.
4) Mario Party 5 is quite a lotta fun.
5) SSB:M is less fun than usual when you're playing with someone that is in the modd to take it too seriously.
6) Boogiepop Phantom is, despite the name, a kinda coolish anime.
7) I need to wrap up Chapter VIII of Unknown before school starts.
8) School starts on Monday!
9) The Way just may be the best RM2K game that exists.
10) The Triplets of Belleville DVD should be rented or checked out of the library and, after having the actual movie beheld, have its music video, the most amusing the upon the DVD, watched.
11) I don't particularly care if I messed up the grammar of that last sentence.
12) EB and I are making some headway again in that semi-secret joint-writing project I may have mentioned.
13) I find the main theme of The Triplets of Belleville to be almost irritatingly catchy.
14) I haven't seen much new anime in over a month!
15) The person who is the greatest danger upon the road is not a certain stereotyped minority, gender, age group, nor any combination of the above, but either a) a person learning to drive a car with a standard transmission or b) a person attempting to change his/her contact lenses while driving a car with a standard transmission.
16) For the umteenth time: Summer vacation is way, way, WAY too short.
17) I need BESM quite badly.
18) I do not care how the word 'infinitely' is actually spelled (see below).
19) The new computer is INFINITELY BETTER than my old one.
20) Data entry is a very boring job, albeit a very easy one.
21) Captain SNES is 1337, now that I can finally see it again.
22) I have a wierd urge to see if I can write something that lacks dialogue and that doesn't suck.
23) I must do more roleplaying...
24) I'm running out of things to put here.
25) ... Umm... Vampire Game is still amusing.

Yep. That should give you a vague idea of what I've been up to for the past two weeks or however I've been gone without updating. Hmm... Oh, yes! College related thingies! Just yesterday (or the day before yesterday -- Friday the 13th) two things happened: first, I went on a tour of the Rice campus and realized that it would be kind of a nice place, though I really wish it had a Creative Writing program... and second, my cousin left for college. As if that's not enough, a friend of mine, Jokoolio, aka Jacob Karesh, is leaving for the University of Southern California very soon and his Send-off Party is tomorrow/today. I'll be sad, of course, as it almost feels like I've just met him (and, well, compared to how long I've known Geode/Kyle, I kinda have), but he DID eventually hang out at my place in an area beyond the doorway (a comment which eventually resulted in the creation of a 'car with a fourth dimension' joke) for several hours, so I don't have too many major regrets. Or at least none that come to the forefront of my mind with the slightest effort.

In other news... ... Umm... ... Things to say... Uhh... Oh, right.

26) I hate William Faulkner's 'As I Lay Dying'. 27) I again have the coolest English teacher ever for a year. 28) Genetic engineer might be a kinda interesting profession for a guy in a Space Opera universe of BESM, but I don't fully know if it actually is at the moment. 29) I really need to do more writing, editting and so forth. 30) I'm not nearly as depressed about school's beginning as I was last year, for some reason.

And that's about it for now. May those of you who will not be attending school within the next coupla days savor that time and may those of you who have already started school send me your commiserations. Thank you and good night.

10/17/04 - October 17 - 2:19 AM
Oops, I did it again...

First off, please forgive that Brittany Spears line. I didn't even notice it until I looked it over just now. Then I didn't feel like taking it out. Anyway...
Yeah. I spent waaaaaaaaay too long between the last update and now. I wanted to have somethings to update. Then, upon realizing something, I said to myself, "Hey, stupid, you DO have things to update!" So, I'll just pass those out now, to all you eager update awaiters.

My Character, Dirk Torrigan, for EB's new (or, at least, it was some time ago...) BESM game.
Sirius's Battle Music from Bomberman 64
The Sinistrals' Battle Music from Lufia II
The Mana Beast's Battle Music from Secret of Mana
The Music of the Pure Land from Secret of Mana
The Elementals' Battle Music from Tales of Phantasia
The Secret Bosses' Battle Music from Tales of Symphonia

The attentive amongst you may have noticed that all but the first of those are music files from video games. Well, I just felt like giving you all a fair number of files and a total of 7 seemed to be a lucky amount to give. As a few notes, I hope that I get the chance to make use of #1 again, and, yeah, #4 doesn't start at the beginning and, unfortunately, it doesn't loop, but, out of the ones I could find, it sounds the best overall.

Anyway... Recent events of my life... ... Umm... Oh! I beat Tales of Symphonia. It was a very cool game on the whole, but there were a few things about it that bugged me. I'd probably put it at around Skies of Arcadia's rank. I really can't decide which is the best RPG on the Game Cube. Of course, now that Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is out (and not yet played by me! Gah!) and especially with Baten Kaitos on the way, deciding the best RPG of the Gamecube may not be too much of an issue. Anyway, time for me to point out some of ToS's flaws:

Summoning is overly complicated: Your summoner must first be in Overlimit (kinda like a Trance, but much less useful), and then must spend a long time casting it for 100 TP (at the end of my game, her max was a little over 500) to get something that, considering all of the above, is good, but really not worth it.
You have to backtrack quite a lot. The game's map is actually pretty small, but you'll be going back and forth between areas quite a lot, so it will feel larger. It would have also helped if the Rheiards (may be misspelled) could make things easier on you by letting you go between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla at will after you get Volt, instead of having to fly to one specific point on each map. Ahh, well...
Last and greatest: the final battle is really disappointing. The music there is absolutely not up to par with the rest of the game in any sense. Furthermore, the boss is absurdly easy to waste. I mean, seriously! The second form (which looked less cool, anyway) was significantly weaker than the first! Final bosses should never do that! Actually, no boss should ever do that! I mean, maybe he just seemed easy to me because I had taken the time to gather some of the ultimate weapons, to charge up the Devil's Arms (which involves fighting the ABSOLUTE most powerful enemy in the game who is hard at, as I'm told, ANY point), to fight that wierd exhibition match in the Meltokio Coliseum (which is only hard if you don't take those guys seriously, but was still much more challenging than the final battle) and to gather the ultimate spells/summons. Still, though! The final boss has a high chance of inflicting a wierd status effect that almost cripples your characters in its first form and nothing at all threatening in its second. This was really a major let-down to me. Sorry to go on and on about this, but, I mean, it was like, for the purposes of that fight, the game's overall quality dropped several levels! Why would Namco do this!? It really felt like they were trying to make it feel so anticlimactic!

If you can put up with those points, along with a few other snags, though, you will enjoy Tales of Symphonia quite a lot.

And now, onto other things. ... ... Umm... Oh, yeah. If you haven't already, go to Crestfallen Studios and play through the marvelous series known as The Way. I think I mentioned that before, but it's just a really, really great series and certainly the best that RM2K has to offer. If you want a different type of game, though, you could try heading to Gaming World.net and downloading 'The Stupidest Game Ever' a comedy game that, despite its name, is not too bad of a title.

I recently finished The World According to Garp. It's a pretty cool novel. Unfortunately for some people, some scenes are kinda violent and overly sexual in nature (one chapter contains the first chapter of one of Garp's stories, in which a woman is raped, written fairly vividly, and in another chapter, a man has part of his penis bitten off). However, on the whole, I think that if you can look past some of those things, you will find a book that is pretty enjoyable.

Now for another book to reccomend, this time one that all people are almost guaranteed to enjoy: The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I recently heard a friend of mine say of it, "Next to the bible, this is the best book ever." I'm not sure I agree with him about the bible being the best book ever (Life, the Universe and Everything, the third of the five books in the trilogy (I promise you that was not a mistake), is my personal favorite book), but tHGttG is my second favorite written work.

A few weekends ago, Jacob was in town for the first time in some time, so he, Kyle, and I all went to a little place called Gladiators for a lock-in. Gladiators is a very, very nice place. In essence, after you pay for your time, you can play any of the many games that they own. Granted, these are mostly for 'newest-gen' consoles and PC, but nobody's really going to complain. We spent a bit of our time playing Mario Party 4 (quiet... It's really funny at 3 AM...), but most of the night was spent enjoying Star Wars: Battlefront for the PC. That was a very, very fun game. Basically, you play as the Clones, the Rebels, or the Droids (although Rebels and Droids, logically, can't go against each other, as they happen to be from two different eras) and select your type of soldier from each of those sides. Then, basically, you just try to kill as many of the enemy's soldiers as you possibly can. Sure, it sounds kinda simple-minded and, at times, it is. But it's still a ton of fun. Also, we learned something from that game: all Jedi are absolute morons with godlike powers. Their AI isn't good on normal standards, but is absolutely godawful when it comes to other Jedi. Case in point: Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader were once standing back to back... and neither of them did ANYTHING! Furthermore, Darth Vader once jumped over a small wall into a fenced in area, but then, it seems, forgot how to jump and, so, was trapped. Of course, onto the godlike powers: normal soldiers CANNOT kill these guys. I mean, most of the time, they will just shrug off grenades, and they will deflect virtually every other type of shot that you can throw at them, including missiles. Yes, that's right: they hit missiles with their lightsabers to make the missiles bounce off to hit something else. Did I mention their godlike powers? Furthermore, once, Luke Skywalker was shot by an AT-ST, flew about 200 feet... and then got back up. 'Nuff said.

I'm sure there are other things I should add, but it's late and I'm sleepy. Content yourself with this almost absurdly long update (I can actually tell that the scroll bar has moved!) until I decide to do it again. The time is now 3:41. Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow. ... Ahh! Now SNL can try to sue me for ripping off Weekend Update! Oh, woe is me!

11/19/04 - November 19 - 9:03 PM
Hah! Only one month and two days passed! Take that, 8/15-10/17!

Those of you expecting REAL update material will probably be very dissappointed. But, well, if you've made the executive decision to continue coming to this site after seeing virtually any update I've put up, I guess content on this site means little to you, for one reason or another. Anyway, I DO have some things to share, some of which pertain only to my life, and some of which others amongst you might find interesting.

A rundown of my life's recent events.
- Last Friday, I took the second test I needed to take to attain my second dan black belt in Tae Kwon Do. It felt very nice to finally get it, but my hand is still twinging a bit from the backfist I delivered against those two boards. Oh, well. At least the knife hand and the elbow breaks were very easy.
- My ACT scores are, apparentally, in the 97th percentile. A fact that... umm... I'm not as interested in as perhaps I should be. I'm probably only mentioning it because it's a fact I learned today. So... yeah. Go me. In other scholastic news, I've placed the requests for my letters of reccomendation and high school transcripts. So, after I finish the rest of the applications, I won't have to worry about college until next year. Yay!
- I saw The Incredibles last Saturday, and it's a much better movie than I expected. I mean, I didn't think it would be terrible, but I wasn't expecting it to actually be a good movie. It turned out to be definitely worth the time spent to go out and see it. So, you should probably go watch it. Yeah.
- I finished America: The Book recently. Quite an amusing book, that. I'd encourage everyone out there to buy a copy or to borrow a copy from someone who did buy it. John Stewart would probably encourage those actions as well. Well, the former, at least. To pluck a random sentence and a random paragraph from the book: "The Speaker of the House would also be third in line for the presidency, though as many an ambitious speaker has noted, it's not a very fast-moving line." (From a Canadian, on Canadian independence) "Now the only remnants of the tyrannical rule of Queen Elizabeth II are an appointed "Governor General" who represents her in Canadian governmental affairs. And the Queen is still officially our head of state. Plus she's on all our money. And when we take a government job, we have to swear a loyalty pledge to her. All in all, a small price to pay for an independence achieved without bloodshed, violence, glory, or independence." Probably not the funniest of lines in the book, but, well, I happened to pick them out at random. So, there.
Things you might actually care about
- FLotFSotBoSoMG is getting back to the voting business at The Top 100 Webcomics List, so go give the folks over there a hand. They're a serious candidate for getting into the Top 10, which is really great news. Granted, the odds that they'll get back in there this month are... a tad slim, but there's always a chance. Of course, voting for them because I've asked you to is no reason at all. So, head over there, ASAP and get to know their comic first. You just might thank me later.
- I've found a new site that covers quite an array of RPGs: Fantasy Anime. It might be worth a look, as some of the games on there are a tad on the obscure side (Live-A-Live, for instance).
- I've found an inexplicable renewed interest in the Ogre Battle saga. I really have no idea where it came from... One day, I just remembered how much I enjoyed Person of Lordly Caliber (aka Ogre Battle 64 or Ogre Battle VI) and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since then. It is, without a doubt, the best RPG (ok, RPG/Strategy) upon the system. This game is one of the system's very few gems, and what a gem it is. I would advise anyone who enjoys RPG/Strategy games to seek out a cartridge and an N64 upon which to play it posthaste. So, now some links. The N64 Rom Stash is possibly the best N64 Rom depot on the net, possessing every game ever released for the system, including Ogre Battle 64. If you can't or don't want to get a cartridge of the game, look here for the Rom, though I might issue a warning: some of the game's visuals will be messed up, especially some backgrounds (in one scene, about half of the castle was missing O_Oo); it's really a shame because, while I usually don't usually care about graphics, this game's visuals are without a doubt the N64's best and are simply some of the greatest I have ever seen in a video game. USF Central can give any N64 music you desire, if you download a small plugin and the collection you desire. Ogre Battle VI has some nicely done music (though many are merely enhanced versions of the music on the SNES Ogre Battle, March of the Black Queen), so I would reccomend looking into it. Finally, I have a link to the Ogre Battle Encyclopedia to offer you. This page, though sadly discontinued after 9/11 of 2003, has the single largest amount of Ogre Battle information available anywhere, so I would strongly reccomend looking it over, if you want to fully familiarize yourself with the series. It should go without saying, but spoilers abound, so take care if you dislike that kind of thing.

I've decided that I've blown off on properly formatting this site for far too long. I know I've said this before, but I REALLY intend to spruce the place up. First off, the majority of this front page will FINALLY be moved into the 'Past Updates' section, which, for the convenience of those who feel like looking over the past updates, I might even break up into smaller sections. I promise I WILL get to these at some point. And I'm serious when I say it, this time.

In case you doubt my words, take a look at the top again if you haven't already. If you're familiar with my page, something should catch your eye. Keep looking... Come on... Almost there... Just a little bit... Yes! The images are now centered! And the FLotFSotBoSoMG banner now links without the need for the little 'Click me!' link beneath it! My days in that Webmastering class are finally paying off, it seems!

Anyway, I've got nothing else now. I hope you enjoyed the update. Expect the next one sometime after Christmas... of 2012. Thank you, and good night.

11/22/04 - November 22 - 12:45 PM
Now I'm REALLY crushing that stupid time span! Bua ha ha ha!

If you were dissappointed at the lack of real update material last time, then prepare for a dramatic reversal of that! Last night, EBMinion reminded me of a certain something that I haven't touched. So, I decided to not merely touch it, but continue work on it. Now, for the first time since... ... Umm... Wow... 7/29/04... Anyway, for the first time since then, you get the regular three updates to Unknown! In text form, behold: Chapter VIII! Or view the ENTIRE 320 KB online version of the story here. And if you'd like to download that whole, freaking, nigh-50 pages long document (which is only 202 KB, it seems), you can do so here.

And, for now, that's all I've got. I might be on later to put up a thing related to The Way, but, then again, I might not. So, for your health, don't hold your breath. Oh, and the 'move much of the front page to the 'Past Updates' section' thingy is still going to happen. Probably sometime this week. Oh, and speaking of this week, it's the Fall Holiday! Hurrah!

And that's that. Until next time...

11/25/04 - November 25 - 9:00 AM
Happy Turkey Day!

... Unless you're in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the land that is misspelled Canadia or any other world regions I've missed. Or just, as Don King would put it: "Happy Turkey Day - Only in America!" ... This went on a tad too long. Oh well.

Anyway, yay for Thanksgiving! It's one of only a few times in the year where most people try to make time to come together with their families for one reason: food. I mean, sure, you could make an argument that it's also being done for family togetherness and to share the spirit of giving thanks for... things, but, at the back of your mind, you know you're thinking about the grub.

If that last paragraph came off as being a little cynical, I'm going to blame it on the experiences I felt because of the nice thing I did and the volunteering I tried to do in the past 12 hours. Odds are, when you read the words 'volunteering I tried to do,' you raised an eyebrow. I mean, how hard can it possibly be to succeed at volunteering after you've begun trying? Well, read the paragraph after the next one to have that naive thought that I too once had sweeped away like the leaves that were scattered about my lawn.

First, though, the incident that began last evening and which was, thankfully, resolved earlier today. I'm a member of Bellaire High's National Honor Society. As such, I am obligated to sign up for some volunteer projects. Incidentally, the other Thanksgiving project I signed up for is covered in the following paragraph. Anyway, I agreed to make and bring a sweet potato casserole to the West University Community Center today. However, in the month between when I signed up and today, they decided that the optimal time to send me the recipe was late last night. Now, I am a notorious procrastinator, so perhaps this is simply karma's way of balancing the universe, but it was quite an inconvenience, receiving the recipe mere hours before the dish is expected to be delivered, while virtually all of the nearby food stores are sold out or closed. My dad and I decided that, since he was planning to make a sweet potato dish anyway, we would just give some of it to them and so we did. The recipe wasn't the same, but, with the notice I was given, the organizers really aren't allowed to complain. This incident, however, didn't really bother me as much as the other volunteer project.

The main turn-off of the project was the time that they requested the volunteers be present at my school: 5:45 AM. When I saw the time on my alarm clock next to my bed this morning, I thought it was broken until I remembered the project. Anyway, I got there and then, after 15 minutes or so in the cold (Houston is definitely not the coldest city in the world, but at this time of year it can get pretty frigid), we set off. We got there 10 minutes later or so and, after checking in at the Volunteer booth, we were told to wait in front of the nearby Star Bucks, because a truck would be coming by to pick us up at 6:30 to take us to Water Station 2 (a charity run called the Turkey Trot was going on, and we were supposed to give them water along the way). So, we waited in front of the Star Bucks for another 15 minutes or so, and then a truck promptly pulled up. We started stepping into it (feeling uncomfortably like cattle being loaded into a truck), until we were told that it was for Water Station 3. I'm not an obsessive bureaucrat, but, like apparentally most of the other volunteers who thought we were entering the Water Station II truck, I believed that in this instance two was better than three and, thus, we began to pile out of the truck. We reasoned that the Water Station II truck would come by soon enough, since 3 had been so prompt. Well... Not so much. One hour later, I got sick of waiting for it in the cold, so I called my dad and got the hell out of there.

So, the next time you imagine that volunteering will be a fairly easy task, keep in mind my ever-so-slightly depressing story. I'm not saying you shouldn't volunteer, of course. I am, however, advising you to think extra hard about waking up before dawn has cracked to go volunteer and, if you do decide to go, hop on the first truck that says it will take a group of fellow volunteers where they need to go*. Of course, if risking the loss of a coupla early morning hours of your life that you will never get back is your thing, then go for it.

Well, that's all I've got. Enjoy the holiday, everybody!

* Note - Disregard this last bit of advice if the truckdriver has more than two-and-a-half real skulls occupying the same spot usually allocated to fuzzy dice. Also, think twice if there appears to be a person tied up in the back and/or if the driver is mumbling something about a 'Purification Ritual' or virtually any other ceremony-like thing you aren't familiar with for that matter.

12/2/04 - December 2 - 5:05 PM
Spontaneously Short Update Time Yeah!

Fairly recently, I found something odd that contains some points of interest. It's called the Fantasy Powers League. It predated City of Heroes, but accomplishes virtually the same goal: let fans of superheroes make their own. However, unlike most other sites like this on the internet, you pick the powers for your heroes based on a point-system, but (and herein lies the rub) you don't actually fight with them. The point of the game is combat, as virtually all superhero-based games of any merit must be, but, after you make your character, complete with origins/description, personality, basic stats, portrait, and attributes (along with updates from points you get along the way), you can't really do anything else with them. Instead, they are matched up against heroes or villains (yes you can make a villain, and it's equal in ease to making a hero, though neutral isn't an option) who are in your wins range, and then other people who have characters look at the two in profile and vote on them based primarily on who would win, but other factors can enter the fray as well. Anyway, here's an example of what can be created for this game. It gave me a chuckle, so you'll probably enjoy it as well.

Well, that's all I have now so I'll see you at the next update, whenever that happens to be.

12/3/04 - December 3 - 6:29 PM
So it begins...

Odds are, you've noticed something different about the site. Namely that this page, perfectly identical to the one you all know, is now on the index page. The original home page, which, if you've known this site before, probably sent you here, now serves... umm... only that purpose. Sorry, but I suddenly realized that Google only counts the index page and, before this sudden change, my index page... oh... what's the word... ah, yes... sucked. Also, as long as I'm moving things around without giving you anything of real value, I think I'll finally make that move of many of these updates to the past updates page (it gets no linky for no particular reason!).

Yeah, yeah. Scoff if you want. But it WILL happen! Oh, yes! You'll see! You'll ALL see! Mua ha ha ha ha! ... That felt unnecessary... Anyway, off to do those thingies!

12/3/04 - December 3 - 7:15 PM
So it ends...

Ha! Take that, non-believers! You can tell IMMEDIATELY how much smaller this main page is now! That's right! For the first time in eons I've updated the Past Updates page! I hope you all enjoyed your 45 minutes or so of doubt because I've proved my superiority to you all in some minor, meaningless way that probably wouldn't make me seem particularly superior if you thought about how much time it took me both to transfer everything and to get to transferring everything! And yes, that WAS a long sentence. Interesting fact, the main page is now about 32 KB, while the Past Updates page is now a whopping 235 KB. Maybe I'll split that up into smaller portions at some point... Or not.

Well, my work here is done for the moment. Enjoy whatever you can find enjoyable here!
Culix out.

12/5/04 - December 5 - 1:15 AM
The Way inclusive update! Hurrah!

I have things related to The Way! ... ^_^o And they'll soon be uploaded. One moment...

MOMENTS LATER: And I'm back. Now, first a brief description of what I have to put up. Basically, as anybody who's aware of how popular The Way series is and how many unanswered questions about parts of it can presume, there are a LOT of theories about what's to come. I have some theories of my own, but maybe I'll share them another time. What I have uploaded are not theories, but theory aides. If that sounds stupid, think of them as fact files from the episodes. If you have a theory and you want to make sure its facts are right and/or you want to get some more evidence for it, you can simply consult these files. You could also play through the game again, but, well, since those, while very, very nice experiences (coming from one who finished replaying all of them just a few hours ago), are a 'little' time intensive, these would probably be more convenient. Eventually, I plan to organize them into information about specific topics (i.e. 'Information about Rhue', 'Information about the Phantom Slasher', 'Information about the Shadow Swords', and so forth) for even easier reference. If I eventually do all that, I might let people send in their theories, get a fair amount of organization, then put it all on its own portion of the site and call it 'The Wanderer's Encyclopedia.' Anyway, I've yammered on about things that may/will be, so I'll just give you the unorganized info I have so far.

The Way Info - All Episodes

Well, that's that. Enjoy! G'night everybody.

12/8/04 - December 8 - 4:14 PM
Amusing article

I usually don't do updates during the week when it's not a holiday, but, as my memory is certainly not the best, I am certain I would forget the things I have to share. There are only two, but I find them amusing, so...

Here you can find a comedy film group at Everson college. They're known as Fancy Pants and, while I've only seen a few of their movies, they're pretty amusing. Sure, they have an underlying stupidity about them and parts of them are kinda disagreeable to me for one reason or another, but I think that, on the whole, they'll entertain you if you give them a chance. Yo-yo is the best that I've seen of their movies.

And here you'll find an article that will probably bring a smile to your lips, unless you happen to be very easily offended by that sort of thing. I'll just say that my English teacher taught the guy who committed the theft and that the line, "When Jesus does return, it likely will be with even more security," may invoke images of the Second Coming with Secret Service guys involved.

Now that you've read and hopefully enjoyed the article, I'll point out that it isn't the former Bellaire High School student's first foray into the world of lightly punished crimes. Mr. Georgandis informed the class that, when we were freshmen (i.e. 2001-02), the then-sophomore singlehandedly ran a small scam in which he created many fake but authentic-looking tardy passes, which sold for $1 apiece. He made hundreds of dollars before he was caught. The police refused to accept that he had worked alone, and he later wrote about the experience in a paper for Mr. Georgandis. Anyway, once all was said and done, he was assigned nothing more than a four-hour detention. And, thanks to a foul-up in the paperwork, he never actually served. Such an amusing guy... Apparentally he was an incredibly talented artist, too. Not that that really means anything in this situation. Just an interesting side-note.

Anyway, that's all I've got. I'm not sure if I'll do any more mid-week updates, but, who can tell? So, until the weekend! ... if even then!

12/16/04 - December 16 - 12:04 PM
Finals...! They are no more!

And we're back! As you can guess from the title, I'm finished with my final exams! So Winter Break is here for me at last! ... Other than the Teacher's Breakfast performance that the Orchestra has to do tomorrow! But I'm too cheery right now to let that (along with the fact that I can't really feel my fingers and I'm in freakin' Houston) bother me. Also, I have update thingies to offer you now, all of which, oddly enough, are old school assignments of mine. Glee!

First off, for my Webmastering class several weeks ago (or was it a coupla months...?) I made a little website. It's nothing really, but here it is. The background color used in there might not be a bad candidate for the main site's background color replacement. If anyone has any comments on the matter, let me know. In the meantime, enjoy the tiny bit of my unique sense of humor within.

The rest of these are English papers. I'll give them out, along with a short description of each one... in table format!

Essay on Fate	I'm told that it's good, but that it feels too much like three essays in one. It could definitely have used some more revision, it's true, but you'll probably enjoy it.
Common Application Essay	My english teacher, Mr. Georgandis, told us to write on an essay topic that we were planning to submit as part of our application, which I think is a good idea. He, my father, and I think I did quite a good job baring my soul in this piece.
The Hell Paper	The last real writing assignment of every Bellaire High School AP English senior's fall semester is always this: the Hell Paper. After reading Dante's Inferno, we were to write a first-person narrative prose paper detailing our own descents into our individual views of hell. I don't have my grade, but he said my paper was one of the especially good ones. I'll let you all be the judges of if he was right.

Aaaaand... I think that's all I have. Enjoy this semi-large (content-wise) update. I'll be enjoying my Winter Break now. Whee!

12/24/04 - December 24 - 10:11 PM
Christmas Eve! Glee!

This will be one of the shortest updates this site has ever seen, but it will be one of the most special. It exists primarily to mark this day that will go down in the history of Houston, Texas: It snowed! And not just tiny little flakes that mean virtually nothing (which we haven't even had for almost a decade, by the way), but actual snow! It piled up on the car and lawn! If somebody told me, as I looked out at the nearby landscape, that I was gazing upon Houston, Texas, I would be completely unable to believe them! I mean, it's insane! It's about 31 degrees Farenheit outside in a city that has an average December temperature of 56! My grandparents mentioned that nothing of the kind has ever happened before, in all their years here! To all of you who think I'm overreacting over less than an inch of snow, consider that I've been able to walk around outside in shorts and a t-shirt on a number of Christmas Eves past without feeling at all nippy.

Anyway, to those of you who celebrate it, Merry Christmas! To those of you who don't, I hope you just enjoy this time of year. Good night, to all!

2/25/05 - February 25 - 11:41 PM
Slightly Belated Happy New Year, Valentine's Day and President's Day!

Wow... I haven't updated in a while. In fact, it's been about one day and two months. I mean, that's not too, too, too impressive given some of the records that I've set (isn't the longest update-drought upwards of six months?), but it is the longest in some time. I'm sorry about that, but I just haven't had anything at all to put up and I've been trying not to treat this site as a Live Journal. I'll try to update more frequently, but I can't make any promises. Not that it'll matter to too many of you, of course; if I actually gained a remotely significant following at some point in time, I'm convinced that I've lost it over the course of the past 2 months. And now to stop myself before I launch into one of my long-winded, whiny spiels about how nobody ever e-mails me to let me know that, yes, some people I do not know DO occasionally visit the site (I'm presuming that SOME people are visiting because I occasionally notice the numbers at the veeeeery bottom of the screen jumping up by more significant amounts than... say... 4). There. You should thank me. By e-mailing me. Hah! And now I've proved my patheticness to ALL of you! Bask in its depressing, gray glow!

Anyway, onto some actual items of update, as shown in the following table.

Unknown IX is finally up! Yay! It's finally finished! Unfortunately, the large amount of time it took didn't make any significant improvements over other chapters. This is the shortest one I've written in a while and, while I'm not too proud of how it came out, it could certainly have been much worse.

Unknown VI has been altered somewhat I realized I did something pretty poorly in here, so now I've fixed it. Everything is exactly the same, although virtually the entire 'temple' scene was redone. It may seem fairly minor, but, for what I have in mind later, it's kind of important.

Unknown VIII has also been altered slightly Nothing big, here. I just realized that the last thing that happened in the earlier version shouldn't have happened. So, with my powers that would rival the Ministry of Truth's if I ever got my act together, (1984 is rather a good, if slightly depressing, book) I changed it.

Unknown.doc and Unknown.htm are now updated ... Nothing to say here, really. See above, basically

Odds are, you're going to be dissappointed by Chapter IX. It's not very interesting and I don't think I did it too well. Oh, well... Anyway, I should also probably explain why it's taken EONS for me to finish it. Not counting outside concerns (school work, gaming addictions, etc.), there were two major reasons: 1) I seemed to have trouble writing the discussions in this one, which was a problem because discussions take up virtually the entire chapter; and 2) Lately, I've been giving a lot of thought to what lies much further ahead and, quite frankly, it is oh-so-much more interesting than what happens in this chapter (I mean, it really, really is). A smaller contributing factor is that I'm getting a tad tired of all the angst. I mean, that's probably a stupid thing to think, considering how gothicy things will get later on (I and II kinda demonstrate the sort of thing that I'm talking about), but it could use a break from that. Which is what, overall, the next portion of the story will be. The plot will still move along just as I intended (note to self: think more about the immediate plot to come) and there will still be some sorrowful bits, but I'm hoping it will have a more light-hearted feel to it for a while.

Also, there have been other things that I've wanted to include for a while (mostly just things that will add a little more depth to the world; lessons on how magic works in the world and certain tidbits of history as examples) in the form of lessons that Hollin gives to Julia and Josh. I had planned for these to be slipped in AFTER Chapter IX, but I've decided to set them in a relatively unimportant point in time (probably a few years before the story begins), once I get around to writing them. I also have a strange (and hopefully humorous) little interlude planned sometime that would basically give you all of this information again, via a different format.

... Wow... This update turned out muuuuuch longer than I had thought it would. Granted, the hour-long D&D game in the middle of it probably helped with that, but... Anyway, that's all I've got for now. So, at 1:28 in the AM, I now sign off. Good day!

3/5/05 - March 5 - 6:16 PM
An update within a week! Hurrah!

It's incredible! Anyway, it's not quite what I thought I'd be putting up, but I do have an Unknown-related update (or basically the same thing in a different format) for anyone who's interested. I think it's much better written than some other things I've tried to pass off as 'good' (Unknown's ninth chapter springs irresistably to mind). Parts of it might bore you, but Magic Class, set several years before the current plot within which Josh, Julia and Hollin currently find themselves, does contain several things that explain the basic state of magic in the world, how it works, and mentions a few things in history. I'll almost certainly go into a 'History Lesson' later that will further explain some of it. All things considered, this was a nice break from the gothicy and serious plot that was going on for a while. It was also a nice change of pace to do this from around 11:30 AM until around 6 PM (yep. That's right. I spent about 5 and a half hours on this), instead of 9 PM until some time in the AM. Maybe I'll do this again some time...

Anyway, some of you may be wondering what exactly prompted this, given my relative sluggishness with updates. And the answer isn't too hard to give: Acid Reflux. To those of you who have failed to click the link, that does not mean that I've recently been suffering from heartburn, which has put a dent in my crazy 'write thingies! for no money!' scheme. It's a webcomic that some of you may have heard of. Sadly, it died well over 2 years ago. I read the entire archives plus the final scripts over the past 4 days. I'm a tad dissappointed that I missed the 'this comic is dead' posts on the main page, otherwise I might not have been so taken by surprise with the abrupt end.

Anyway, I'll explain later how this long-defunct webcomic led me to make an update and will probably lead to further updates on a semi-regular basis in what promises to be my biggest rant in a while. So, look forward to that, if, for whatever reason, you like my wierd ravings. Until then, let this tide you over. If it doesn't seem particularly alarming to you, wait a coupla seconds, and then click Refresh. Odds are, no matter how level-headed you are, looking at the sheer amount by which it's going up in a matter of one second and then thinking about how much time it takes a normal person to acquire that amount of money should boggle your mind for at least a little while.

Well, until the rant comes along, fare thee well!

EDIT: (9:49) - The Rant!

And here we go!

Acid Reflux has a certain charm and a few points of interest. For instance... the appearance of the God of the world from Act I as a relatively weak and helpless little girl is an interesting change from the omnipotent bastards running around in most sprite comics (yeah, that's funny, too, but uniqueness is always nice). It contains two appearances of a very funky cult with... interesting fashion sense; in some ways, it kinda reminds me of Earthbound's Happy Happyist cult. The quest, rather than stopping some madman from ruling/destroying the world, is to gather pages of a book (which often takes the shape of a help program with waaaaaaaaaay to many missing files, appearing as a semi-naked man) to teach God how to undo the apocalypse, which was caused by four movie producer-esque entities. On the subject of that apocolypse, a dog was made utterly immortal, despite everything that happens around and to it. The mage's animal familiar, a squirrel, has an amusing personality and, in one storyline, he parodies a movie (it's fairly well-done, I think). This is the only plot in any medium I have ever seen that contains a werefox as a main character. Overall, it's a very well-done, amusing webcomic, which, given the suckitude of a number of other webcomics, says quite a lot, I think. It was discontinued over two years ago, but still provided the final few scripts for the storyline that was in progress.

Anyway, I think that's enough listing about the comic's unique points. You'll see them yourself if you decide to read through it (which, despite the annoyance you'll probably feel in finding its sudden end, is still worth reading), anyway. This affects me because I've gotten rather into it, so suddenly realizing that it's only achieved an incomplete end makes me sad. In a way, it reminds me of Earthbound SMAAAAAAASH, about... Wow... Has it been over 5 years? Anyway, I found the site about 2 or 3 days after Corey, the guy who had operated the site, put up a message announcing that he would no longer update it. I read that update and, in the wee hours of the morning when the slight need for sleep induces in most people feelings that probably resemble a drug-induced stupor, something about it moved me, and so I e-mailed him. He sympathized with me and suggested I spend some time on the messageboards. I did and, through that, I met EBMinion and Skullrama, two of my best friends. Making this Acid Reflux situation rather different: I feel the sense of missing something great, without gaining anything in exchange.

... Good jebus... What the hell am I whining about? It was gone looooong before I got there and, unless some radical change creeps over Emily (Acid Reflux's artist), it's not coming back. It would be nice if they had reached a REAL end. It would have been nicer still if it had been regularly updated when I found it, so I could get the nice sense that I was there for much of the entire thing when it ended, as I felt with Kid Radd. I can totally accept the facts of the matter. I've searched my soul and reflected on the relatively inconsequential impact that I'm probably going to have on the cosmos before. I got over that by thinking the matter over for a few nights. These feelings I've got now are nothing compared to that wierd sea of worthlessness I felt back then. I got over that, and I think I've already gotten over most of the Acid Reflux thing, so why am I complaining?

As for not gaining anything in exchange, I think I've actually gained something veeeeeeery valuable that I really needed: some perspective. Over two years ago, I started my Chrono Trigger fanfic, The Heir of Zeal. I got 10 fairly short chapters into it before stopping. Then, almost a year ago, after reading RainHawke's Suikoden II fanfic, Hawk and Fox, I began writing my Final Fantasy VI fanfic, Saviors. I got 3 lengthy chapters into it before stopping. In the past year, I wrote three very short stories about Shazar, Dekanu, and Culix. To be totally frank, not a one of them was any good. About 9 months ago, I began Unknown, my first good non-fanfic work. Recently, I have completed chapter 9, but it's clear that the quality just isn't very good for some of the more recent chapters as when I started. If I decided to follow the trend of my other longer stories, that would basically mean the ringing of the bell for Unknown. But, thanks to my new perspective, that's just not happening. I just won't let it. Even if it doesn't turn out very well when I work my way through to the end, I'll go back and make it better. It'll be something well worth reading by the time I'm finished.

Hear that Apathy? I'm really devoted to getting it done, now, so I'm afraid you're now nothing to me. Hypocrisy? Your days are numbered; I've had free time all this school year while complaining that all I needed was free time to get some work done, but no more. And you, Sloth, will find a number of my days becoming far less wasteful than they've been, spelling your oblivion. All three of you metaphorical bastards are going down.

... And I wonder if I'm crazy, having addressed my inner evils like that. Not that it much matters. I doubt even something as minor as insanity could keep me from finishing what I intend to finish. And I owe it all to thinking too much about what Acid Reflux means to me...

Well, I hope the less than humorous tone of this rant didn't make it a chore to read. It's definitely not my best ranting, but, well, I'm a tad out of practice. Maybe that'll change... In any case, good night folks.

3/19/05 - March 19 - 12:30 AM
It took two weeks, but it's good again! And I'm up to 9 MB used!

For those of you not "in the know," (yeah... I am totally knowledgeable about modern slang...) "it" in the title is... Unknown! Yes! Unknown's 10th chapter is here! I'm so happy, since I was kinda worried after IX turned out so terribly (yeah, I really need to stop referring to it, since I may be causing it to sound worse than it actually was. ... Who'm I kidding? It was TERRIBLE!!!), but X is actually a pretty good, solid chapter in which I can instill some pride. So, check out the .txt version, the .doc version, and the .htm version!

Anyway, I should probably celebrate this somehow, but I have no idea how. Hmm... Well, I could just take the easy way out and say that the universe is celebrating for me by beginning Spring Break today (GL33! 2 T3H X-TR3/\/\3!!!1!one!), but something tells me that I should take it a tad more seriously... ... So, I shall think on't.

Moving on, I have something else to update: the first uploaded game log in ages! It's for the Star Wars RPG we've recently started. If you're interested in working out who's who...

GM Starfe = ...
Delro = EBMinion
Jethro = Skullrama
Talon = Yours truly

Hmm... Other things to mention... Well, after EB, Skull and Starfe began Kings of Chaos again, following the beginning of the Fourth Age, I started anew my own account. Yesterday, I believe I jumped about 10,000 ranks by getting some spies and sentries. Considering that I only started about a week ago, things are going pretty well for my account, actually. Whoops. Sorry about that. I seem to have jumped another 6-7 thousand ranks from that point earlier today, now that I've double-checked my standing. Of course, I wouldn't say no to a little bit of help, if you've got a moment (or a lot of help, if you wouldn't mind starting an account yourself and entering under my command).

Anything else...? Oh, right. UIL. As usual, Bellaire High School's Orchestra did very well this year. I was a little worried, actually. We didn't seem to be doing particularly well this year for some odd reason, so I'm very glad that things went over well. Partially for the success itself, but also partially because our teacher semi-frequently tells us, "The year that my group doesn't get all Is* at UIL Concert and Sight-reading is the year I know I should retire." And who wants the knowledge that they forced a good teacher to retire weighing on their conscience?
* A I (one), in case you can't guess at it, is the highest rank possible at UIL.

On a slightly related subject (only because it involved my changing for UIL), the bathroom situation at Bellaire High School is, for lack of a better description (or at least one that I feel like generating at this point in time), pretty godawful. Now, some of you probably think I'm complaining about something that everyone at a public high school has to deal with and, to an extent, you're absolutely right. Without question, those horrific locales, those public high school bathrooms, are horridly squalid, malodorous, repugnant, urine-stained, graffiti-walled, little holes. However, loathsome though they are, if you truly need them, they are there and they will reasonably satisfy your needs. Unless you attend Bellaire, anyway. If that's the case, then prepare to spend at least 5-10 minutes combing the hallways, searching for a bathroom that isn't locked. Yes, of the 4 or 5 Boys' Rooms on the campus, at least three are locked at all times. Further, there seems to be no particular consistency from day-to-day with which bathroom doors may be opened. I mean, to me, it just feels a tad ridiculous to roam the halls for several minutes, for the privelage of changing or defecating in some dank, "urine-soaked hell-hole." (Thank you, Sideshow Bob!)

But, onto more pleasant matters... Jacob/jokoolio, one of the major players at Jester Shadow Productions, has recently started rewriting a Zelda fanfic. It's pretty good so far, so go take a look at it. You'll probably enjoy it.

And last, but by no sane means least, visit Final Legend of the Fantasy Secreat of the Breath of Stars of Magical Gaia (or FLotFSotBoSoMG for short (if you can call that short)) and bask in the splendor that is the big story arc finale! ... And, upon checking the site, it seems I'm a tad late with my update. To make my statement accurate: bask in the splendor that is the follow-up to the big story arc finale! Yay! And bask in my remarkable talent to cover up my mistakes!

...

Okay, I lied. That wasn't really last. I just thought I'd mention that, since it's Spring Break, I intend to get some serious writing done. I expect to finish at least three chapters this week. Also, not all of those chapters will be for Unknown. Actually, only one of them probably will be. The other two will each be for two different projects: the joint writing project that I've been doing with EB for a while (after something of a hiatus) and an entirely new project that's, as of yet, in its conceptualized infancy. The former you definitely won't see when it's finished, and the latter you might not see when it's finished (though you probably will). My explanation for the joint project is simply that it won't come out until all parts of it are finished. Sadly, I've no idea when that will be. As for the new project... Well, I'm kinda toying with the concept of making it into a comic. The major snag with that is that I know no people with artistic talent who don't already have something that's employing their skills and large amounts of their time. So, maybe that will happen, if I manage to find a good artist with enough free time that a small country's armory would still leave a fair amount of it clinging to life. Oh, and of course who are also willing to give up those large portions of time and talent.

Anyway, I'm sleepy, so I'm going to bed now. If anything I've mentioned gives you something resembling a sense of wonder, then good. I've done my job. Or perhaps I've done more than my job, implying that I've gone above and beyond the call of duty and deserve further compensation. Then again, as I've thus far recieved no monetary compensation whatsoever (though I have gotten the occasional non-tangible benefit), I clearly just haven't done my job well enough. But, I'll just have to continue not doing my job well enough later. To sleep!

EDIT! - 12:13 PM

^_^o Eheh... I just realized that I've been using Word Wrap on all of the text files that went up since the 25th of February. If you tried to use them, you found that they required ridiculous amounts of scrolling to the right. Fortunately, Unknown VI, Unknown VIII, Unknown IX, Unknown X, and Magic Class now display properly. Yay!

3/25/05 - March 25 - 5:32 PM
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes.

If you've been to the site before, odds are that you instantly noticed a change: the background color is blue! And that isn't all! After spending far longer than anticipated on that joint-project chapter (at least it's finally finished...), I thought it would be good for me to update some parts of the site that hadn't been touched in... err... over a year. So, off I go to spruce them up a bit!

UPDATE! - 6:12 PM
I've now redone the Written Works and Downloads/Extras sections, and looked at the Links section. So, check those places out a bit. I think I'll move some of the stuff out here to the Past Updates section, too in a moment. And, who knows? Maybe I'll add an entirely new section for Roleplaying-related things, later. I'll be sure to say something, if I do.

UPDATE! - 6:20 PM
And now I've moved things into the Past Updates section! I think it feels right that the last update I added to it was December 3rd's, when I mentioned that I hadn't added things to that section. Anyway, I don't think I'll get to making a new section today, so I'll update again when I come up with something worth putting up. ... Or feel like whining about something. ... Oh, yeah. And, thanks to Kyle's help, I now have access to absolutely everything that Mario Kart: Double Dash has to offer. Hurrah!

Well, until next update... Seeya!

4/2/05 - April 2 - 11:39 AM
Not much of an update, but I'm annoyed, so too bad.

Alright. This update doesn't really have anything important in it and I should mention that I probably won't have anything to put up later today. I might, but don't get your hopes up, if you're one of the few people who actually visits the site.. Anyway, what I have now is a whiny little spiel about something that I realize isn't too important, anyway. Yes, I AM a pansy.

Basically, I was doing rather well in Kings of Chaos recently: I'm currently somewhere in the low 30 thousands. However, a few minutes ago, something happened that pissed me off. I hadn't played in several days because I wanted to amass a lot of turns to harvest a great amount of gold. When I saw that my number of turns read 101, I presumed it was as good a time as any and proceeded to launch a great many attacks. Thanks to a lot of luck, I used about 87 turns, losing about 40 soldiers in the process, to acquire about 1, 780,000 gold. I was very happy because it meant that, even after repairing my equipment, I could get another Blackpowder Missile and upgrade both my Fortification and Siege Technology. However, then a hideous twist of fate occurred: some jackass attacked me and took over 1,600,000 gold from me. Now, I realize that that taking money from others that have a helluva lot of it is a big part of the game. But, when I notice that I suddenly don't have enough to buy the Blackpowder Missile or either of the upgrades, and then see in the Attack Log about 21 seconds later that I was struck 19 seconds earlier by Phsykodad, it's hard not to be kinda bent out of shape by it.

So, I have this to ask of anyone who plays and reads this site: if you're looking for an easy mark amongst some of the weaker players, if you notice that they have faaaaaar fewer than a thousand men and well over a million gold on hand, it's virtually guaranteed that they're currently playing, have used up a lot of stored up attack turns to gather that money, and may well be entering the anti-bot code required to buy something incredibly expensive at that very moment. And, as someone who has had that happen to him, I can tell you that it really, really blows when you find yourself suddenly very poor, with nothing to show for your efforts but a few days' worth of used turns that leave you with less money than you got just by letting turns pass. So, please: resist the temptation to attack them in that situation. Just a humble request.

Anyhoo, now that that's out of the way, I should probably mention that I'm going to be out of town from Thursday the 7th until the following Sunday or Monday. I'll be in Breckinridge, Colorado on a trip with the BHS orchestra. Just thought I'd point that out.

Well, sorry for the lack of anything important in this update, but I will try to get something up before I leave. I'm currently working on that new project I mentioned some time ago; the one that I thought could be turned into a webcomic. It's turning out pretty well-written so I may just put that up. Of course, that's only if I decide that the trouble involved with setting up a webcomic (writing the scripts, coming up with jokes consistently, finding a good artist who's willing to draw the comic and who hasn't already devoted himself to too many other projects as it is for me to ask him to take this on as well without feeling incredibly guilty about it *cough* artistofFinalLegendoftheFantasySecretoftheBreathofStarsofMagicalGaia *cough*) isn't worth it. I mean, the chapter(s) I type will go up either way, but the written versions will go up only after the events contained therein have occurred in the comic, if the comic is created.

So... Yeah. That's that. As I said, maybe you'll see something later, but probably not. In any case, I'm going to go have lunch, then get back to work.

4/11/05 - April 11 - 6:57 PM
The Lord and Master of the Haven has returned!

And once I find out who he is, I'll be sure to point him out to you!

...

And that was a small taste of my innocuous wit to remind you of what you missed while I was in Colorado. I'll prattle for a while on how that went in a moment, but, for now, I'll just put up a link to something you've probably already seen after visiting 8-Bit Theater, but which is still so awe-inspiringly cool that I must put it up anyway: SEGA Fantasy VI! A small warning, though: don't play unless you have a fair amount of free time to kill because it's... errm... a tad on the longish side.

Oh. And something else you might be interested in: beta-testing for Episode VI of The Way will begin shortly. So, if you have any interest in doing so, you should probably go to Crestfallen Studios and check the two most recent updates to find out what you need to e-mail to Lun. Also, if you want to laugh at another part of the horrifyingly unfair string of coincidences that constitutes my life,* know that I left on the 7th and returned home today, the 11th, at about 2 in the morning, at which point I saw the most recent update.

Anyway, onto the highlights and lowlights of the trip. ... Or, you can just skip ahead to the last paragraph or two to find out what I think I'll do about that potential comic idea I mentioned. ... Or you can just leave for another site. This would be a good choice. Here is good, too. You can't go wrong with this one, either. Ooh! Ooh! And it would still be worth your time to see this again. ... Still reading? Good. Onto the trip.

I woke up a little earlier than usual on Thursday, still in something of a funk about having to comply with that blasted Daylight Saving's Time nonsense! Then I went to the airport and found that, apparentally, the name David Scott is on some FBI/Homeland Security Wanted List. And so, after clearing my name with some ID and watching the destruction of one security guard's hopes of very easily capturing a terrorist,** I waited two hours for the plane, a Game Boy Advance and Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls my faithful companions.

The flight was... utterly uneventful, actually. I was expecting the confusion at the ticket counter about my terrorist status (or, as is the case, my lack thereof) to be something of a prelude to every moment of the trip that followed, but things went pretty well on the plane. ... Sorry if you're disappointed.

Then, we took a long, but equally as uneventful bus ride from the Denver airport to our hotel at Breckinridge, Colorado. Our orchestra director, Dr. Brown, and the chaperones handed out room keys and other necessary information (room mate lists, concert times, restaurant names and locations, etc.) and we went to our rooms. There, we just kind of hung out for the rest of the day. My room mates were David Selig (Con: was kind of a jerky idiot when conscious. Pro: caught a cold the first day and was unconscious 19 out of ever 24 hours), Philip Birtcher (Pro: a fairly amusing guy, all-in-all. Con: a fairly creepy guy, all-in-all), and Michael Brown (Pro: a pretty good guy who gave me only two real reasons to be unhappy with him. Con: wanted to eat dolphin and had abysmal taste in pizza***).

That night, our group went out to Bubba Gump's, a place that served shrimp, primarily, that was inspired by the movie, Forrest Gump. Not being much of shrimp fan, I found a burger and enjoyed it with the complementary fries. I remember Philip and Michael (David Selig was at a different table, for reasons that continue to escape me, but which nevertheless earn my gratitude) saying something wierd and stupid after a while, and then laughing very hard when I mused that the Mountain Dews they were drinking contained something not unlike marijuana. Then we went back to the room and slept in some way that I can't recall (I actually can't remember any of our sleeping arrangements; all I remember is being ticked off that four people had to sleep on, in some fashion, a bed, a couch/bed, a chair, and a counter). Then came the trials and tribulations of Day: The Second.

We woke up and decided to go skiing, since, well, we had kinda paid for it. I now wish we hadn't, though... In any case, we went down with the other 30-something people in our group that were skiing and got fitted for equipment over the course of the next 40 minutes. Then, for various reasons I choose not to divulge, I had to go up and down from our room and the mountains before actually getting to the ski "class." I call it a "class" because, quite frankly, it sucked. He showed us the basic moves and watched us cautiously perform them back to him on a gentle slope, then presumed that meant everybody was prepared to take a ski lift to a point quite some ways up the mountain. To summarize that entire outing, I fell more often than I actually skiied. When, at last, I reached the bottom,**** I undertook the horrifying journey (carrying all of the skiing equipment and wearing the ski boots certainly made things rather hectic) back to the room, where I was soon joined by everyone but Michael. We slept for a while, then showered, as we realized that the official reason we had come to Breckinridge, the music festival, was close at hand.

So, we all got back into our dress uniforms, stepped aboard the bus, and arrived at the school that hosted the competition. Tuning the instruments again was something of a chore, as we had been forced to tune them down by an absurd amount before we got onto the plane (because none of us felt like paying to replace the strings that would normally break at that pressure). However, that was pretty easy to fix and, after a few moments in the warm-up room, we went on stage. Other than a few small mishaps (a few spots when some people weren't together, the odd note that was out of tune, and the cello player's cell phone that kinda went off near the end of the Mozart piece, to name the most prominent), everything went well and they excitedly told us before we left that, as one of the last groups, we were the best yet and that we had recieved, in order, the scores 98, 99, and 100. Thus, our hearts sank, weighed down by the great doubt that we would not even win a runner-up trophy. Or maybe they rose incredibly, buoyed up by the high level of confidence their words had instilled in us. I'm too sleepy to be sure.

Then, we went to some barbeque place to celebrate. We waited about an hour for our food. Oh, and if you ever visit that restaurant (the description of 'that place we ate' should tell you more than you need to know to identify it) and you, like me, aren't that big a fan of gravy on meat, note that when they say 'chicken breast, mashed potatoes, covered in gravy,' the 'covered in gravy,' is all inclusive, so expect it to be sloshed everywhere unless you, unlike me, ask for the gravy on the side. In any case, it wasn't too bad, after I managed to spoon off a lot of the grey goop. Of course, I didn't feel too good about it after spying the bill. Also something I should probably point out: during the ski season at Breckinridge, you are not obligated to give a tip at a restaurant. This is because you are obligated to pay a gratuity, included in the bill. Along with taxes, it will likely make up about 30% of what you wind up paying. And since the food is a tad exorbitantly priced as it is, you'll likely be losing $15-$30 any time you eat anywhere in town. Just a head's up there. Anyway, we went back to the hotel and slept, until the sun inched its way into the heavens, ushering in the far more pleasant Day 3.

Shortly after waking up, we went to our director's room and found that it was a hell of a lot nicer than ours. I mean, the total space of our "kitchen" (it gets quotation marks because it's very small), "bathroom" (see "kitchen"'s parenthesis) and "living room" (see "bathroom"'s parenthesis) was almost equal to the size of her group's living room. They made up for this by making some very good pancakes with us.

After that scrumptious meal, we went to ski/return the skiing equipment. Once I had rid myself of those objects, I realized that I could take my lift ticket to the counter to get a $25 refund on my American Express card. Huzzah! I then went to go buy some souveniers with another group. I bought two T-shirts (though one of them wasn't quite what I wanted... Lousy employees! You're "living" off of minimum wage! What more do you want?) and two hats at one place, then at another bought 3 tins of cocoa.***** Then I called it a day and killed time. We later went to a HORRIBLE pizza place, which was only made worse by Michael's terrible taste in pizza that I mentioned (see *** if you need a reminder). On the plus side, it was the only place that didn't include a gratuity. I guess it's some comfort that they both know they're awful and feel guilty enough about it not to make us pay much more than we need to, but... Still...

Anyway, after that (I kinda get the feeling it was before, but it doesn't really matter) we went to the awards ceremony where we recieved trophies for Best Soloist, Best in Class (of 5A Orchestras) and Best Overall (including all the non-orchestra groups that played). Then there was some other award ceremony that I don't remember very well in Dr. Brown's room and we went to sleep not long after. And so ended our last real day in Breckinridge.

We woke up about an hour before we needed to be downstairs, with all our stuff packed. Well, when we were told we needed to be downstairs. The bus didn't actually show up to take us to the airport until about an hour or two later, thanks to the weather. Also because of the weather, we had to take a longer route to the airport, so we spent about 3 hours hanging out on the bus. On the plus side, the snow gave everything a very picturesque winter look. If only everyone hadn't already used up all of the shots in their cameras on pictures of random people's feet... Oh, well.

When we reached the airport we were mortified to learn that our 4:45 (I think...) flight had been cancelled. Fortunately, the weather was good enough that we could board an (I think) 8:45 plane back to Houston (and I had no identity problems, either!). We did, however, have about 5 hours to kill. Fortunately, my GBA combined with Dawn of Souls proved very capable at vanquishing those hours. I managed to destroy Kary and Kraken in addition to getting class change, getting the Warp Cube, and killing a few bosses in the Earthgift Shrine in that terminal. The food court prices that, relative to what we had seen in Breckinridge, were veeeery low also helped make short work of that little period.

On board the plane, we had another uneventful flight, although we had to wait about an hour after getting on for them to spray off all of the snow. Jerks... Just take off without ensuring our safety next time! How much harm could two frozen, utterly immobile wings on a plane flying in the darkness of night possibly do? Anyway, at about 1:15, Houston time, we touched down. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was that.

Now, then. That idea I mentioned. I've done some thinking about it the past few days and, while I'm definitely going to do it, I'm still not sure if it will be in comic form. However, just so I don't waste much time, I'm going to write out the first few chapters without uploading anything, then get some advice from my friends. Perhaps I'll simply write the entire thing in a novelesque format. Or perhaps the comic will actually come into being. At the moment, it's hard to say. Also, if you're worried that I'm giving up on another commitment of mine, don't be; I'm still going to finish Unknown. I just think that I might profit from having an extra project lying around to alternate with Unknown. It seems to work with some people, so I might as well try it.

Anyway, that's that. I'll probably update with something this weekend or next weekend. In any case, good night, everybody.

* - And that, in case you were unaware, is what we in the "biz" call a joke. Oh. And I'm sleepy. There. Now, I've covered all my bases.
** - Not really. They were all nice people, if a tad sleepy/hungover.
*** - Think Hawaiian.
**** - I vowed I would never speak/type of how exactly that happened ever again. So, use your imagination, if you must.
***** - For about $8 apiece! What was I thinking when I said that Breckinridge prices are high?

4/23/05 - April 23 - 2:50 AM
Just a quickie to tide you over!

I have nothing big to say. I'm just going to put up a link to the Poison Control games section. Play the hangman game. Oh, and here's a hint: the first word is 'FAILURE'. So is the second word. And, actually, so are all of the others. Yes. Apparentally someone thought it was a good idea to make a hangman game with only one word. To quote Jacob Karesh (jokoolio, if you're somehow not in the know), "And of course their intro to that game is "remember, all the words are poison related." There are two mistakes in that sentence: words and poison related."

There's also a hangman game "with clues." Actually, it does offer about 7 or 8 words and it's doubtful that you'd get it without the clues they offer. However, some of those clues are just bad. Case in point: "Adults press clothes and found in vitamins." You could probably guess that the answer is "iron", but still...

Oh. And, the crowning achievement of the Poison Control games section, the mirror "game." Basically, you type in your name, and then it gives it to you... backwards! First of all, I can't imagine, likely because of my very, very sleepy condition, why someone would actually make this. And second of all, I can't imagine, though I'm sure it made sense to them at the time, why someone would then put it up in the freaking Poison Control games section, of all places. I mean, really, why? It's not a game and it has nothing to do with poison! Why, oh why, oh why, would somebody do this?

Then again, it brought me laughter, so it can't be all bad. So, I say go ahead: bask in the warming, cheery glow of Poison Control's idiocy. And don't let the veeeery disturbing fact that Poison Control is idiotic get in the way of your enjoyment.

Well, for now, that's all I've got. I'll just say that I've started playing through Final Fantasy V again and, for the first time, I've gotten a ways beyond Atomos. That's right, you Comet-casting, corpse-inhaling bastard of an elevator door! I beat you! And I did it without GilTossing myself into abject poverty! So, ha! And now I say, "Damn the Pyramid for being so incredibly huge!"

And now I rip off Weekend Update of Saturday Night Live by saying, "Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow."

5/6/05 - May 6 - 11:31 PM
Not really much of an update, but... meh.

I just thought I'd put up an update solely because I haven't in a couple of weeks. Doesn't that just make you feel so warm and fuzzy inside? Anyway, first, some of the recent events of my life. Last Saturday night, Bellaire High School had its prom and I attended the event with a friend of mine, Michelle. The evening from about 7/8 (can't remember for the life of me when it started) until 1 in the morning was... well, not the most fun time I've ever had. Michelle's dress was a size smaller than it should have been, so she was clearly in pain from the constant pressure on her abdomen. She and I danced a little, but, since I wasn't particularly good at it and she still had some pain, we just sat there for much of the time. However, at 1 AM, the After Prom began, which, conversely, was a lot of fun. Parts of it felt a bit childish, but it was still pretty enjoyable. There was a very large mat for Twister, several Black Jack and Roulette tables, and some rather nice food, to name a few things. But, Michelle was exhausted and, even though we changed after the prom, her mid-section was still a little pained, so we only stayed for about an hour and a half or so. So, we each got home at around 3 in the morning.

So, yeah. Not exactly the greatest night of my life, but not too bad. Anyway, the following evening, Kyle and I went to the Mark Twain Elementary reunion. I couldn't immediately remember about half of the people there (and I never actually remembered most of them, come to think of it. That may be a bad sign...), but it was still nice to see everyone again. The evening was filled with awkward pauses, separated by short bursts of questions, primarily consisting of, "So, who were you again?" However, interestingly enough, I learned that two people from that group will be attending the same college as me in the fall. Oh, that reminds me.

At long last, it will be known to all who care that I will be going to Trinity University in San Antonio. So, now to go over the reasons for not going with the other schools:

Rice University - Well, this one's easy: I, like many, many, many others at Bellaire, didn't get into this almost absurdly selective school. Oh, well. Would have been nice, though...
Texas Christian University - To be honest, I never really had any interest in going here. I mean, it's a good school, but... Almost all of the others seemed better...
Loyola Marymount University - I think this was the first university I mentioned on this site. And, had they ponied up enough financial aid, I might have gone. However, pushing myself and my family into abject poverty to pay its cost of over $30 thousand per year, plus all of the travel payments, seemed a bit much. A shame, since I thought California would have been a nice place to live for a while. To say nothing of the fact that Jacob would have been in the same city, which would have certainly been interesting.
University of Portland - It would have also been rather nice to live in the northwestern United States. Partially because certain good friends of mine, who I've never actually met in person (EBMinion, Skullrama, and Starfe), live rather near to that college. However, I considered it an affordable option because my dad said that, with the tuition exchange program between that university and his school, it might be possible for me to receive free tuition. Then, after our application went in, they told us that, apparentally, all spaces for that program had gone to people already attending the university, before anyone else got the chance to apply. So, with no way to pay for it, plus the travel costs, I just couldn't consider it.
St. Edward's University - The final real contender. However, since the general rankings and student opinions about it were significantly lower than at Trinity... well... I didn't labor under the decision too much.

And that is that. I'll be going to Trinity next year. And, even though it looks like I'm going only because all of my choices were taken away by financial needs and simple superiority of the institution (and, well, they kinda were. ... Still ever so slightly bitter about that...), Trinity University is actually a very good school, where, with the credits I hope to glean from my AP Exams, I'll be able to complete my unique double major in Creative Writing and Computer Engineering.

Speaking of the AP Exams... They started on Monday. To those of you who don't know what they are, they're basically rather challenging tests that, if one does well enough on them, enable one to recieve some college credit in that course in college. On Tuesday, I got to take the AP AB Calculus Exam. I think I did pretty well on the multiple choice section, and I know I did a good job on most of the free response section. However, one nagging problem is that time was called before I could finish writing out two of the answers to the last free response questions. This may not be that bad of a thing since, the way they score it, one's work is worth signicantly more than one's answers (answers are almost always worth 1 point, while the work is usually 2-4 points per problem), but it still bugs me a bit...
As for the AP English Literature Exam... Err... It's hard to say. Some of the multiple-choice questions on the poetry samples seemed... a tad funky. I think I did well enough on the other multiple choice questions to balance it out, but... They were still wierd... The essays, however... Well, that was quite an experience. And a far more pleasant one than last year, at that (In English Language, I did a good job on the first essay. I did a decent job on the second. To give you an idea of how the third went, after I finished reading the prompt and the passage of the third, I had no clue what I was going to do. Mr. Jackson chose that moment to send me into a mad panic by announcing, "You have 10 minutes left."). Basically, the first essay consists of answering a question about a poetry selection, the second of answering a question about a short story, and the third of writing about a given theme from any work of your choosing. For the third, we had received what would have, on almost any other exam, good advice: pick two works with such broad arrays of themes that you will be able to handle whatever the test gives you and study them via cliff notes/book rags/spark notes to make sure you really understand them. As I picked Frankenstein and Hamlet, I felt confident enough to say, "There is no possible way that I will get a theme that cannot be easily applied to either of these works." And, as anybody with any sense knows, this is never a good idea; it's like daring reality to thwart you. And thwart me it did, with a theme that, while easily applicable to many works, I found troublesome to use with either of mine. Of course, since I recalled a certain book we had covered that very semester that did happen to fit it perfectly, I felt safe, and the essay I wrote was a good one, although I'm convinced I misspelled a character's name. So, since I did a great job on the first essay and a pretty good job with the second, I'm fairly confident I did well on the essay portion.

And now, onto the literary plans of my life. I'm still working on Unknown. ... Okay, perhaps 'working' is the wrong word, but I am still giving it a fair amount of thought. Why, just last Wednesday I sat down and wrote out some of the plans I have for the future of the story. And, looking at the grand scheme of things, I saw two characters, one I was definitely including, but much later, and one I wasn't sure I was including at all, and decided that both should come in before long with more important and/or more interesting roles. Also, while looking at it after summarizing a large portion of the plot, it felt odd; since I could summarize things, it felt simpler than it had, but, looking it over, I realized just how much more complicated its plot is than anything I had ever dreamed about when this idea first came to me, almost one year ago to the day. It's a very peculiar feeling, but I think I like it. ... ^_^o I hope this doesn't feel like I'm overhyping the finished product that is to come. Also, I just thought I'd add that there is absolutely no way that the entire story is fitting into one novel-length work. I realized this a while ago, but now I've remembered that I forgot to mention that little detail. So, now you know. I'm also more open to just keeping the name Unknown as more than just a working title, since it seems like it might be rather appropriate. But, if something better comes to anyone's mind (make suggestions whenever, but you may change your mind later in the plot), feel free to share. Oh, and I don't really know when Chapter XI will be out. You see, that chapter will probably set certain kinda important events/characteristics in stone that will affect how things go later. I want things to work out as well as possible, so I'm not going to type a single word until I've worked out exactly what my plan is.

As for that thing that I was kinda taking a break from Unknown to write, I started the second chapter last weekend, but I lost my train of thought thanks to a long phone call. So, now I don't really know where to go with it. Blegh... But, I will finish at least the first few chapters to set up the basic idea of the story (which is shaping out to be a tad more than it seems, much like Unknown has). It has a lighter and more anime-ish feel to it than Unknown, which is the main reason I'd kinda like to see it comic-ized. But, if that can't be worked out, I've no major complaints.

And one last thing: I had another idea for something to write. It is, and I get the feeling someone will, on some level at least, given my history with this type of thing, roll their eyes and groan a little when they hear this, a Seiken Densetsu (series containing Secret of Mana, the sadly dubbed Final Fantasy Adventure, and, of course, Seiken Densetsu III) fanfic. However, unlike the far longer (and still very much incomplete) works of 'The Heir of Zeal' (CT) and 'Saviors' (FFVI), this would be a fairly short piece, probably only about 10 pages or so. But, because it will take an amount of research to make out that what I have in mind would work out, I won't actually be able to write it for a little while. But, it will stand as my first completed fanfic when it's done.

Anyhoo, I'll be cycling between these three projects. I've heard doing something like that works for some people and, with any luck, it'll work for me, too. So, I don't know when Unknown's next chapter will be ready, when the first few finished chapters of that second project will be ready for viewing by anyone who wants to give me input, or when the thorough research and then the writing for the third project will be complete. So, just don't worry; I'll keep you posted. Of course, nothing will actually happen this weekend or, likely, next weekend, as the two other AP Exams I have to worry about and a total of three projects will be occupying too much of my attention.

Whelp. I was hoping to put up a list of 'Some RM2K Games Worth Playing,' (which would include The Way, A Blurred Line, and Three the Hard Way, to name three of the greats) but it's too late now. I'ma (good old accent that I don't actually have...) go to sleep and worry about the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph's last sentence. I'll take care of it next time. So, g'night.

5/28/05 - May 28 - 12:04 AM
Sure, it's technically 12:04 AM on Sunday, but I refuse to let a little 'fact' like that get in the way of this update happening on my birthday!

Yep. May 28 (note the emphasis) is my birthday, as well as, so says I, today. Anyway, in an astonishing twist of fate, I actually have something to put up along side this update! In fact, I have two (Yep. Going crazy with the italics and bold tags, I am) things that people might actually care about and a couple of other things that are just kinda there.

In any case, I'll get to the big things first, but before that, I'd just like to say this: Ha! I beat you in an unannounced and utterly meaningless race, Jacob! Twice! That officially makes me two fractions of a point closer to being better than you in an absolutely insignificant ranking system, the sheer mechanics to which no sane mind can possibly comprehend! That probably made absolutely no sense to anybody, including him. So, I'll just give you an idea by announcing that not only is chapter XI of Unknown finished, but chapter XII is fiiiiinally complete as well! I've put up no text versions because I decided to change a coupla things in the .doc file (there's a new one for the newer chapters, by the way) version of those chapters and thought it was too much of a pain to transfer those adjustments back. Anyway, you can now enjoy both of the new chapters here! Also, check here (.txt) or here (.doc) for a change I made to that chapter. It's not too important right now, but you all can wonder what it means before the truth is revealed (much, much later) if you want. The new scene is between Hollin and Julia's conversation and Hollin and Josh's sparring session.

And now a few words on the new chapters: I'm not sure why I thought putting out two at once was a good way to make up for not making any for ages (and after sounding so determined a while back), but I spent almost all the free moments of last week, my first week off of school, working on them. XI was a big pain to start; I wound up revising it about three times and eventually decided I'd just begin it with a scruffy guy (as a side-note, I imagine a man who wouldn't look out of place wearing the uniform of a senile, old prospector from an old Western, shouting, "There's GOLD in them thar hills!") guiding a wagon, and still wasn't completely happy with it. In either case, things seemed to flow after that (I was trying to wedge the scene that's now in chapter X somewhere in here for a while) and I wrote almost all of the rest of it on the second day. Since the scene in the Fluffy Pillow feels, for the most part, unnecessary, I'm going to have to think of a way to make something that happened in there be useful later (likely the means by which the clerk procures two gold pieces).

As for chapter XII... That was just kind of a nightmare. I've been wanting to do that chapter for a long time because it introduces three (and mentions at least one) very important characters and has something of a 'first' (or several 'first's, depending on how you think about it) within it. I never imagined it would turn into by far the longest chapter I've yet written. Then again, I never imagined it having such a large number of pretty important scenes, either. This is also the first chapter I've done in a while with a fair amount of foreshadowing talk by people more in the know of what's really going on, which has made me realize something: handling that foreshadowing, so you give away something, but not enough for people to really guess the truth, when you know basically what the truth is happens to be significantly harder than when you don't know what the truth is (believe it or not, filling in the blanks is actually a lot easier). On a less important note that I make only out of boredom, this happens to be the first chapter to make any brief references to sex (nothing in particularly poor taste, I think) and alcohol's effects (though perhaps I should be, I'm not ashamed to admit I actually looked up some info on hangovers). I think both of the chapters were done pretty well, not counting a few moments. After seeing Episode III, one of my greatest fears is making Josh as whiny as Anakin. So, if you're a real friend, please, for jebus's sake, tell me if I ever make that mistake.

Anyway, on a note that slightly pertains to one part of the new chapters, the new Zelda game looks 1337. It was, without a doubt, the best thing that I saw previewed at E3. That's not to say that other things previewed there didn't also look great (to name a few, Kingdom Hearts II, StarCraft: Ghost, , and... well, most of what pertained to FFVII (though I find it kind of annoying that Square-Enix is doing to death the extraction of 'spin-offs/sequels/movies' from that one game they released eight years ago while completely ignoring the other great games they created before that time), but Twilight Princess just seems... I don't know... More generally intriguing to me, I guess. Maybe the fact that it was one of the few titles for a system I actually own that really grabbed me (not that there weren't others, but...) had something to do with it, but... Anyway, that's my severely limited E3 report on the reports. I'd go into greater detail, but methinks that you could get (and probably already have gotten) more insightful reports from people who were actually there (Brian Clevinger of 8-Bit Theater and ... the guy who does VG Cats to name a couple).

But, that's enough of that. ... So, other things... Hmm... Oh, yeah. It's my birthday as of the date on which I will forever claim I made this update. So, I'm now 19 years old. Just one more and the teenage years will forever be behind me... I'm sure I'll feel almost as old as King Tutankhamen's corpse when the day of that metamorphosis arrives (365 days from now; don't believe the foolish technology that claims it's 364 or fewer!), but the change from 18 to 19 is, I assure you, minimal. ... I get the feeling that Jacob and Kyle may insist I'm lying and that my time at the prom and the fact that I gave into my mother's insistence that I wear a polo shirt to a coupla job interviews (which I wasn't even actually able to get, then; I just handed in the filled out applications I'd gotten earlier) exist as warning signs of a horrific change that would no doubt make itself clear following this anniversary of my day of birth. ... And I wonder how much more long-winded Vaarsuvius of The Order of the Stick could have made that sentence...

Anyway, the Epic D&D campaign that's progressed under the Dungeon Master...-ship of Kyle finally came to a close tonight (again, that's the 28th of May). I wasn't on board for the first three to six months or so of it, but, as it's been going on for about 2 and a half years, I've still been with it quite some time. And it was fun most of the time. Of course, since we were mowing down everything in our path with relatively little difficulty with the same old tactics for most of the time (thanks to the marvels of 'Mass Heal', the final boss's repeated use of Supernova just made the situation more of a catch-22 than a battle, which was a little dissappointing. The music was very cool, though), things got a little old. Still, even if it kinda dragged at times, probably due more to technical difficulties than anything else, I thought it was a very good experience.

I've seen quite a few movies recently, though half of them are quite old:

Hellboy - ... Err... Sorry, but, to be quite honest, I really wasn't paying attention during most of the time I watched this movie. Yes, I know: I'm a bad person. It seemed interesting and pretty cool, on the whole, if a bit odd, and parts of it were pretty funny, so I guess I'll reccomend this one.
The Lady Killers - I have doubts that everyone would like this movie, which shows, given most of the reviews, but the black comedy of this movie could definitely appeal to a great many. I found almost all of it to be hilarious, so, if you like what I like, you might want to give this one a watch.
Star Wars Episode III : Revenge of the Sith
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Oh, boy... I'm going to say this: if you've read the books only once or twice quite a few years ago, then, like Kyle and Jacob, you're probably going to enjoy this movie. However, if you've read the books more recently or, like me, read them so many times that you have several of the books' better lines memorized, then I doubt you'll this. It had some funny parts, but I found myself far too often thinking, "No! No! That's not the line! That's not REMOTELY funny! Why the hell would you even change that?" Case in point: when getting a drink from the Nutri-Matic machine, the substance it dispenses is described as being "almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea" (you can get the exact description of that machine here); in the movie, however, Trillian, after Arthur makes a face at its flavor, says she "should have mentioned it resembles tea." I mean, why, oh why, oh why, would anybody make that change? (WARNING: The next sentence is kind of a run-on and contains major spoilers, so you may want to skip it if either of those facts bother you) Add in the facts that the movie pays a visit to two planets that were only mentioned briefly in the book, while skipping over a number of amusing dialogue sequences, that it makes it seem that Arthur and Trillian have a relationship that simply doesn't exist in the book, and that the Earth's reconstruction being mere minutes away from being reset back to five minutes before it would give the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (jebus, that sentence is horrible...), for the explicit purpose of retrieving said information (all so the movie can end on a different note than the book of everybody being revived), kinda makes the desire of the mice to get that Question by stealing Arthur's brain both more malicious than in the book since doing so is utterly pointless, and the movie strays unnecessarily far from its source material. The final straw for me, however, was the final line in the movie. Though Marvin (probably the best part of the movie) delivers the line very much in character, the fact that it says, to paraphrase, "The Restaurant's at the other end of the universe," shows that the movie's creators clearly didn't even care enough to read the second book or, if they did, they chose to disregard it in lieu of a not particularly funny joke. ... Wow... Quite a rant... Sorry about that.

And... Umm... EB, Skull, Starfe and I finally got another session of the Star Wars RPG in. Probably the most amusing parts of that game were a few OOC comments on how slowly things were progressing:
Skullrama: So, in the last two hours we've.... talked about last session... left the hotel... and started walking to a restaurant. Wow. We are SLOW.

And, something that was born from input by all of the players:
EBMinion: Snicker... I realize it's relevant for the roleplay, but I really wanna see what the opening text of this Star Wars production would be if'n these travel and dine sequences covered the majority of the film.
Culix: Episode XVII - The Restaurant Order Mix-Up
Skullrama: A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away.... Emissary Velt, dignitary of the GALACTIC REPUBLIC, and his friends Jethro and Delro ordered the Mon Calamari squid, but their order returned differently....

Seriously, though, things were moving at a pretty slow non-combat-oriented pace. Fortunately, DM Starfe is doing it deliberately and an interesting fact that's recently been brought to our character's attention has threatened to change that simple way of life into a far more challenging one. I'll either upload that session and the others (except 4, since that involves some things that happened with Talon via whisperings with the DM, so Starfe doesn't want EB or Skull knowing exactly what transpired) or I'll provide a link when they're up on EB's site.

Hmm... And... I think that's all I've got. ... So, after finishing off those damn chapters, hoping I could get to bed earlier than I had been once that task was accomplished, it seems I'll again be going to sleep at a little after three in the morning. Blargh... Oh, well. Hope you enjoyed the extra large update! That thing I mentioned about RM2K games that are worth playing will have to wait for next time. So, hope alongside me that the graduation ceremony tomorrow doesn't take too much of my life away from me. Good night/morning on this beautiful day of the 28th everybody!.

5/30/05 - May 30 - 5:03 PM
An update in which I do not insist that it is a day that all other sane people on this earth would insist it is not. ... If that makes sense.

Umm... Yeah. ... Anyway, I made a very small change to Unknown XI and Up in Chapter XII. I really doubt you'll notice what it was. It's not actually that important, but... ehh... It's there, now. Also, perhaps you were wondering why I didn't include .txt versions and a .html version of the chapters. One easy answer is laziness, but two reasons that sounds better are that 1) I actually looked at the .html compilation of I through X and just thought it looked god-awful, and 2) I thought that having three different versions of the same exact chapter seemed a little excessive. So, whenever I get around to it, I'm going to make a cascading style sheet for the chapters and start making better versions of the existing chapters and ever chapter yet to be written. Look forward for that sometime before the summer is over.

Also, there might be another supplement some time, though it'll probably be shorter and in a different style than Magic Class was. It'll mostly just give a bit more information on the Holy Zerian Church. Oh, and on that note, since I get the feeling that, eventually, someone will say something about it, while any similarities between the Zerian Church and the Catholic Church are probably intentional, anything that speaks ill of the latter probably isn't. I loosely modeled the former on what little structure I knew off the top of my head transpired within the latter before throwing in many other details that make it quite different. For instance, the pope in the former never, ever makes any public appearances. So, basically, understand that I bear no ill will against any form of Catholicism or any other religion for that matter; I borrowed from the Catholic Church because I thought that might make for an interesting structure to work with and, well, for lack of a better term, an interesting plot device.

Hmm... I think that's about all I can think of for now, so, since I see myself making another update later today (otherwise know that there will be no updates until Thursday or Friday for reasons I will explain at that time)... See ya later, everybody!

6/4/05 - June 4 - 10:43 PM
One of my life's most interesting, and, were it not so amusing, hellish, experiences.

Well. As you're no doubt aware, I updated neither on Thursday nor on Friday. I could say I was recuperating, but, like oh so many times before, I just kinda forgot this site existed. Bah... I probably could have updated on Wednesday, now that I think about it, as things didn't quite go as per the plan we had in mind on Tuesday. Anyway, it was supposed to be a fun camping trip: we'd go to a camp site, hang out, swim, play some D&D in a foresty setting, and generally enjoy ourselves. We expected some hardships, but... Well... First, look at the title of this update. Yes, there; right beneath the date. Okay. Keep thinking about that. As we were setting out, Jacob was almost right when he said, "This'll either be a great experience, or one we never speak of again." See if you can guess which option he was closer to.

Before I go on, let me just list some vital statistics on our unique experience:
Title: Gromets and Gables
Sub-Title: A Success Story
Motto: It's good enough, eh.
Symbol: A buzzard, specifically one with wings outstretched as the quarter's eagle.

We left at 10:30 on Tuesday morning. ... Oh, yeah. We left a little later (just over an hour, I think) because, thanks to that whole 'Memorial Day' thing, Jacob had to get the insurance business on the van taken care of before we could go. So, when Kyle's mom called to ask where we were, he got to tell her we were about 15 minutes away from Jacob's house at around noon, some 90 minutes after we were supposed to be out of there.

The trip itself was pretty uneventful. We were going to Pedernales Falls near Johnson City, Texas, so that was about a four hour drive. Oh, by the way: Jacob decided to tell us right before we left that the van didn't have air conditioning. Anyway, we passed the time by pretending we were in a ship, prompting cries of "We launch at six bells!" and "Enemy ships (aka cops) off the starboard bow!" on-and-off, and by listening to music, mostly They Might Be Giants, a very nice, if peculiar, band (if you wonder about 'peculiar,' then know that our favorite song is about the fact that Istanbul was once Constantinople).

When we got to Austin, we decided to look up a friend of Jacob's on the UT campus. However, apparentally this friend had, to an extent, a worse sense of direction than I do, since he told us we were very far away from the campus... while we were actually in one of the campus's parking lots. After about 10-15 minutes of driving around Austin, we went back to almost the same spot we had paused at, found him, and went to a restaurant. I didn't really like the food that much, but I'm something of an uber picky bastard, so no surprises there. It was about then that we noticed Jacob had a sunburn from having his elbow out of the window for... pretty much the entire trip. Some cracks were made about him marinating it when he moved a piece of ice from his drink along it and we left not long afterward. Oh. We dropped his friend off back at the campus first. While still in Austin, we marvelled at the diagonal cross walks the city seemed to sport, learned the truth of 'right of way' (hint: it is widely accepted that the bigger car suffers less damage in a collision with a smaller one), moved in front of a 'thing' (the life form appeared to be a female Hans Mole Man. Hans Mole Woman, perhaps), and were almost hit from behind by some jerk.

Anyway, it wasn't much further to the camp site. The first problem there arose when we found the check-in counter locked. But, since some people leaving were nice enough to tell us that we could just pick a site and someone would check us off before we checked in the following morning, that matter was quickly resolved. So, we went to site 52 (the guy from Austin (wish I'd bothered to memorize his name... Oh, well) reccomended it (why, I can't fathom)) and started to get set up. The tent that Jacob and I were going to use was easy enough to set up (since our instruction manual contained step-by-step diagrams and labels), but Kyle had a bit of trouble with his tent, as the instruction manual contained only a picture of the finished product (quoth Jacob, "Here's what you've failed to achieve.") and cryptic instructions about inserting rods into gromets. For the next five minutes, jokes about what the hell 'gromets' were filled the air. This was also the origin of half of our story's title. As for the subtitle, your guess is as good as mine; perhaps it's because we survived.

In any case, both tents eventually went up. Then, since we knew it would be hot the next few days, we started setting up Kyle's canopy. However, apparentally the damn thing didn't want to be set up as it fell apart whenever anything was inserted into anything else. Around this time, we began repeating, in tandem, "Insert Rod A into Slot B."
"That's what sh--"
"If you say 'that's what she said" one more time, I'm gonna pop you."
So, yeah. Our humor depends on periodic Family Guy, Simpsons, and Adult Swim quotes to survive. Dr. Nick: "Which reminds me."

Yep. Sad and pathetic souls, we are. But, back to the matter at hand, now that I've estranged some of you, drawn some of you in closer still, and made the rest realize they can't be bothered/don't care enough to change their opinion of me. We got the canopy up, once we realized specific things were written on the sides of the bars and that they were intended to go in specific places. One of the specific mentionings used the word 'gable,' which explains the second half of the title.

After that, we went down to the lake and looked upon its majesty. A shame we would never actually break its beautiful surface. But, regardless, we decided that a shower sounded good. So, while Jacob and I left our glasses back in our tent, we went to do that. And, dear jebus... following the four-hour trip across the summer sun-bathed plains of Texas in a van that lacked air conditioning, the showers were simply divine. There were only two shower stalls, so I got to take mine after hearing the pair of them go on almost step-by-step about how wonderful it was. After their showers, Kyle went back to start the fire while Jacob stayed back to help me find the way back to our site. Since his eyesight without his glasses is, apparentally, several hundred times better than mine and, as night had fallen, I was very grateful for his assistance; finding my way back amidst the big black blur and smaller multi-colored blurs would have been hell. Kinda wish I'd just taken my glasses with me, actually.

Anyway, back at our camp site, Kyle informed us just how much of a pain it was going to be to maintain a fire. You see, as it was something of a state park, we weren't allowed to gather wood from the forest, and had to make due with the logs we could buy from near the check-in place. However, the thing about those logs... the thing one really has to know about those logs... is that they were utter crap. They also, generous souls that they were, gave us a piece of "fire starter" wood that looked like granola and burned about as well. Eventually, Kyle managed to get the fire going by spraying a log with bug spray and then using the flint. But, since none of the other crappy, crappy logs would catch, we had to gather a lot of dead grass from the area. We wasted about half an hour, all the dead grass in our area, an amount of magnesium, some paper towels, and a little more bug spray trying to keep it going before we finally gave up. Jacob got his camera out and we made an entry in a video diary. I think my favorite line from that is, "Here we are at day one of the trip."

Since had eaten a late lunch, so we weren't really hungry. We just went into the larger of the two tents (that of Jacob and myself) and played the first (and last) D&D session of the trip. It went rather well. Two amusing scenes involved Jacob and Kyle jokingly going back and forth about a military commander greeting the newest maggots, and all of us joking about the somewhat amusing scenario of shouting orders to one man, who relays them to the troops, when the troops were already in earshot.

After that, we stepped out of the tent to stretch our legs before going to bed and saw a raccoon on the perimeter of the camp site before it vanished into the forest. We thought it was kinda cool to see that, but didn't take the subtle hint that perhaps we should put the food into the van. This came back to haunt us when we were all in our appropriate tents and we heard some noises outside. We chased the raccoon off and started loading most of the food back into the van, but the little bugger had already gnawed through the protective plastic covering of the tortillas and bitten through all of them. Rather than risk the contraction of rabies, we threw them away and went to sleep. Kyle later told us that it came back and was clawing at the outside of its tent for a while, but we would have bigger things to worry about soon enough.

This, by the way, is when things start getting good.

It began to rain, but both tents had rain covers, so we presumed all would be well. After reading a chapter of Lewis Black's "Nothing's Sacred," I was able to go to sleep. However, the other two members of the group had a little more trouble. Jacob was enjoying the rain, since it felt kind of soothing, so he thought sleep would come easily. That line of thinking died abruptly when a wall of the tent slammed into his face. Wide awake, with me sleeping soundly not far away, he feared he would have to spend the rest of the night holding up the tent alone.

Not long before that moment, Kyle's troubles were a bit worse. He looked to the top of his tent to see some dark splotches. He then charged outside of his tent to see that, indeed, his rain cover had been less secure than he had hoped. He struggled with it for a while, then went back into the tent. Then, he said -- out loud, mind you -- "Well, as long as the wind doesn't pick up, I should be fine." I'll not say specifically what happened next; you should be able to guess, knowing that he had just given the powers that be an excellent opportunity to show just how much they loved irony. He again went out and managed to seal off one part of his tent. He realized his error when he went back inside and found that the wind now had nowhere to go and his tent began to inflate in a balloonish manner until the back wall collapsed.

Charging through the weather that seemed to be miming a tropical storm, he made his way to our tent. At around that time, Jacob wondered how Kyle was doing. He then saw some hands padding against the wall of the tent and began to freak out a bit when they found their way to the zipper. Now, I would just like to point out at this moment that this scenario is an example of why we as a group consider concealable firearms to be an ill conceived idea. But, enough of that public service announcement of sorts. Kyle got inside of the tent, at which point I woke up.

There was no source of light inside of the tent, but, as the lightning flashes were coming about two times per second, giving off a strobe light effect, seeing each other wasn't particularly difficult. For the next hour or two, we laughed at the absurdity of the entire situation and thought back to Jacob's line about how the trip would be something we'd look back on with fond nostolgia or never speak of again. On that note, sure, almost everything went wrong, but it all went wrong in just the right way that we couldn't not speak of it again. We made some cracks about what shape the canopy must be in, considering how much it fell apart when we were setting it up. Theories were put forth that it was likely in a tree at that moment. Jacob took out the camera again and we all captured some of the moment. And, since we were in a tent in a forest at night with a video camera, you can bet there are at least a couple of Blair Witch "I'm really scared right now,"'s on that camera.

However, our cheer was dealt a blow when we realized that Kyle had left the four D&D books he had brought with him back in his tent. So, he dashed out to grab them. Well... Good news: they weren't in his tent. Bad news: they were lying outside. It really was a good thing, though, since his tent had about two inches of water along the bottom. With the damage report, we ascertained that only one was really pretty devestated, while the other three were pretty much fine. Other than some warping, I think all are still okay, though. But, his venture into the outside did glean some other amusing information: the canopy had survived with no problems of any kind. Anyway, after the worst of the gale force winds and rains abated, we ran out to the van and slept there, getting, all-in-all, about three hours of sleep.

The next day, we went out and put away what was fine and threw away what we decided we didn't want to bother salvaging. That included the canopy. Oh, how we hate that canopy... But, its disposal garnered some politically incorrect hilarity as well: the angle some of its parts possessed made it look as though we had seized a few crutches from handicapped children and thrown them into a dumpster. We headed for the check-in station next, where we checked in and checked out at the same time. Jacob also pointed to a picture of one of the park's waterfalls and announced, "Ah. A picture of site 52 last night." Afterwards, came the crowning touches to our ill-fated sojourn: we took a wrong turn from the beginning and had to turn around after 5-10 minutes, and we spied a buzzard that seemed to be watching us, which explains the story's symbol.

The rest of the trip was mercifully uneventful.

And that's that. I hope our tale of woe brought you as much amusement as it did us. Look for a documentary of our little vacation on Jester Shadow Productions sometime in the near future. Anyway, I'm going to bed now. Maybe I'll have something more substantial next time. But, well... You know me. It's about 1 in the AM here, so g'night/g'morning everybody.

Back to the rest of my worthless site!

Unknown IX is finally up!	Yay! It's finally finished! Unfortunately, the large amount of time it took didn't make any significant improvements over other chapters. This is the shortest one I've written in a while and, while I'm not too proud of how it came out, it could certainly have been much worse.
Unknown VI has been altered somewhat	I realized I did something pretty poorly in here, so now I've fixed it. Everything is exactly the same, although virtually the entire 'temple' scene was redone. It may seem fairly minor, but, for what I have in mind later, it's kind of important.
Unknown VIII has also been altered slightly	Nothing big, here. I just realized that the last thing that happened in the earlier version shouldn't have happened. So, with my powers that would rival the Ministry of Truth's if I ever got my act together, (1984 is rather a good, if slightly depressing, book) I changed it.
Unknown.doc and Unknown.htm are now updated	... Nothing to say here, really. See above, basically