dracil

And I don't feel like playing practical jokes. Hmm... or maybe I'm lying.
Currently feeling mischievous

dracil

http://www.imaginarygirlfriends.com/

LOL - and no, that is not an April Fool's joke, as it's been around long before then. I wonder if they actualy make money. Then again, I've seen similar services on Ebay and people did bid for it.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

The most common April Fools' theme this year seems to be the fake MPAA takedown page. I first saw it on Wannabefansubs' site. They even added your IP and said they'd investigate you. Of course, it didn't make sense because anime, especially unlicensed TV series ain't part of the MPAA. So I checked their IRC and for a while, if you said "april," or maybe "fool" or mentioned the url of the images, which was located in /idiots/ you'd get kicked. Fun stuff, they had like 210 kicks before they finally reverted things to normal.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

First read about it a couple hours after it happened. Wonder who's gonna be the new pope...
Currently feeling blah

dracil

http://s89930274.onlinehome.us/pic0886.jpg



Read the shirt (since there was one person who didn't get it)
Currently feeling amused

dracil

And Walgreens still has the cheapest bread prices anywhere. In fact, I think it even became cheaper. Only $0.89 for a loaf of bread. What's up with other places charging several dollars for a single loaf?

Safeway still has the cheapest frozen meals though ($1 each).

Of course, if anyone knows cheaper places around Berkeley, let me know!
Currently feeling okay

dracil

So Terri Schiavo's parents sold their donor list to a marketing firm. How nice of them. Take advantage of the people who tried to help you why don't you?

Article
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Yes, it's real. They turned it into an anime.

http://www.toonygal.com/ppg/ - some info
http://www.california.com/~keeper/ppgz1.jpg - more pics

And before Powerpuff Girls Z, there was the Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi.

http://bleedman.snafu-comics.com/?strip_id=0
Currently feeling amused

dracil

The Dark Room

Have fun getting out of there. Took me 1.5 hours to completely solve it.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Finally! It's from USF for Internet Engineering. The person wrote back to basically ask me how much money I really need so he can decide how much to give me. Hmm...

That's one acceptance and one rejection. I'm assuming that since I still haven't heard back from the other ones this late in the process I'm on the waitlist. Hmm...
Currently feeling happy

dracil

http://clairvoyance.hp.infoseek.co.jp/nightmare.html

Really really well done flash. It actually moved me close to tears. But I dunno, maybe I'm just too imaginative with the story and can just get sentimental at stuff like this. It's just how my brain's wired. I'm sure a lot of you will just think, "Yeah, it's cool" or "Huh?" or maybe feel the story isn't that original. But then again, there are no more original stories out there. If it can be done it's been done before.

And yay, we successfully got rid of it from Newgrounds. Why? Because someone else submitted the author's work against the rules.

A little background on the flash, the characters in the flash are actually mascots from 2ch, the largest japanese message board on the net and was a submission, and the grand prize winner of the 3rd Red & White Flash Contest (a spoof of NHK's annual Red & White Song Contest, which puts popular Japanese singers into male and female teams during New Year's Eve, with popular votes as well as judge votes deciding the winning team of each year). You will find the site of this contest at http://flash.chbox.com/rw04/ where you will find Nightmare City listed as the MVP winner (the creator won a mini iPod).

Oh, and press play at the end to see the epilogue. Use the space bar to access the controls.

Some translation of the text. My Japanese is not perfect, and there's some interpretation issues, but it should be (mostly) correct.

In the intro:
I seek the light that will shine the truth
Let's leave this street of lies
Because I will definitely protect you

In the middle:
Is this the ending you desire?

The ending dialogue:
Come on, let's go
Thank you
But I cannot go with you
What are...
Don't come near me!
Quickly... please go.
I will return right away so
Wait for me
I will definitely rescue you

I haven't translated the epilogue yet. It's also potentially spoiling, so I'll translate it later.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

I find it highly amusing that my site's #10 for underage sex kittens

*looks at usericon* Hmm...
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Or at least ones that are subbed. Ebichu, Tenshi na Konamaiki, Mai-Hime (well, I'm still waiting for my group, but there's one group that has it out already)

Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan is interesting, but the next release won't be out for a month. Meh.

Currently feeling blah

dracil

Some more interesting flash from the 3rd Red & White Flash Contest.

Technical Award

Most Moving Award
Currently feeling okay

dracil

http://www.sinplex.com/box.html

Interesting from a CogSci point of view. Go down to the 3rd button to understand what I mean. Oh, and each drip has a different result.
Currently feeling entertained

dracil

Well, I basically got a half tuition off fellowship for USF. Hmm...

In other news, Fate/Stay Night was ranked #1 or so for a lot of stuff at Getchu.com. :D
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Pizza and pizza it turned out for our meals. First was fat slice for lunch, then West Coast Pizza for dinner. Finally got him to finish watching A Tale of Two Sisters, which if you haven't watched it yet, you should. :D

Watch a movie that makes you think once in a while.
Currently feeling content

dracil

So I guess David ended up leaving before I woke up. Early flight.

Not much else happened today otherwise.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Hmm, guess I didn't blog last night.

Oof, planning for leaving and applying for new visa and stuff is a real major pain. >_<
Currently feeling stressed

dracil

http://www.ocremix.org/ - lots of arranged game music to listen to


Currently feeling okay

dracil

You've probably noticed a lot of people "adopt" various characters and stuff to put on their website. This one is just weird. http://bunnysnoog.cyborgcow.net/
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Just got two more letters today. Acceptance from UCI and rejection from UCD.

Ok, so now I actually have a choice between UCI and USF. I don't think I'm getting money from UCI (at least no info in the acceptance package), but it's definitely ranked higher than USF. Then again, USF has the program that more closely matches what I wanted to do. Whee, dilemma.
Currently feeling happy

dracil

http://outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html - rather funny anecdotes
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Cleared up stuff at the SISS office today, so feel better. And UCI also sent me online links for the statement of intent to register. Eck, decisions decisions? >_<
Currently feeling stressed

dracil

http://www.darkonthemovie.com/ - 'nuff said.

I first learned about LARP while reading some book in this "playroom" office in middle school where my friends and I would gather around to play our variant version of Uno.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Been playing this recently.

This game is the 8th game in the series, and by Team Shanghai Alice, a doujin circle that's actually just one person who calls himself ZUN.

This is basically one of those classic shooting games, now known as "shmup" in some circles. It's also called a danmaku ( 弾幕 ) type of shooter, or basically "curtain fire" as the game calls it. That's because there's often a *ton* of bullets on the screen so that the slightest mistake will kill you. And people revel in this sort of challenge. Just try it on the hardest difficulty, with no continues. I dare you.

Here's an example. Oh, and this was on the easiest mode out of four difficulty levels.

This particular pattern is from one version of the final boss. You can't attack it at all, and instead, must survive 90 seconds of about 4 or so different patterns. BTW, I still haven't succeeded in perfecting it yet. My best of 27 tries was to reach 0 seconds on the timer, and then get hit by a bullet. -_-

What's also special is that these bosses have many many different attack patterns. Two per health bar. Specifically, their health bar is split into red and white. When it reaches the red, they use their spell card, which is basically their version of the player's bomb button. Not only that, to get the bonus, you must beat it the spell card perfectly. If you die or use a bomb yourself, you will fail the bonus. The extra stage is crazy, since the boss has 10 lives (so basically like 20 patterns to memorize). It's also not just a matter of memorizing their attack patterns too, since usually the enemies will target your current location on the screen.

It's also interesting that there's this new game called Moedan, by the same people who created this book on learning English, to teach you how to play these games effectively. Or basically, danmaku shmup for beginners.

Here is a video by a guy who perfected the Last Words (probably the hardest boss patterns in the game). It's actually easier to do Last Words than to beat the game perfectly on Lunatic difficulty though, since you can retry immediately over and over until you do it right.
Currently feeling entertained

dracil

Heh, Shen came over to get the game from yesterday's entry today.

Hmm, have travel agency. Want tickets and visas done for me as cheap and painlessly as possible.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Yeah, it's "ancient" news now since I didn't blog about it as soon as I learned about it.

Link with more links

Comic strip inspired from the incident.
Currently feeling amused

dracil

Hmm, finally ordered my plane ticket. Should arrive in the next day or two. Then it's 3 weeks to get a Thai visa. And it'll take me 6 weeks (supposedly) to get a US visa.

I *hate* dealing with bureaucracy and mail because things take so long.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

Cool, my tickets have already arrived.
Currently feeling okay

dracil

Hmm, forgot to blog against yesterday. That's two misses in too quickly a period. Well, didn't really do much yesterday anyway.
Currently feeling blah

dracil

This is gonna suck. Either I ship my stuff over, and carry the carryables in a couple trips over. Or I get a moving company. Or I find someone to drive. Hmm...
Currently feeling blah

dracil

The last one I'll ever have. We went to Albany Bistro and Charlie paid for my meal as a favor that was owed from a while ago for fixing his computer. Dinner conversations were as usual, rather interesting.

Afterwards, some of us went to The Old Teahouse and just continued chatting for a while longer.
Currently feeling tired