Update...again?

May is well on its way to being over and I still haven't posted? No, you're reading one right now.

I'll skip my excuses, because while my Internet service and connection has been an absolute nightmare, it usually didn't keep me from posting, it just strongly discouraged it.

But what have I been up to lately? Well school is finally over for mya, which means that up till now I have been working harder than ever on school. Also my summer job has started up again and I don't have much longer till it goes from only on the weekends, to every day.

That's an explanation for why I was and why I will be very busy soon. However, what have I done that people might be mildly interested in? I finally finished the Harry Potter series and my only criticism is that it is now over. I've also read the Hogather, a humorous, if strange book; but I'm sure the strangeness was only increased by the fact that it is not the first in the series (I actually didn't know it was part of a series till halfway through the book). Keeping with the subject of literature, I've started reading the 4th book in the Death Gate Cycle.

On video game's, I've made quite a bit of progress, but my comments are short since I think these game's are fairly well known.
Kirby Super Star Ultra: awesome, just like I predicted.
Sonic Unleashed: Actually finished playing this a while back, but never talked about it. The short in the short however is...meh, if you like Sonic then go for it.
Chrono Trigger DS: it's just like the original and it's awesome.
Okami: there's a very heavy Japanese influence here, but is that bad? I'll just say there's a reason why it has so many awards.
Banjo-Kazooie: We rented this when it was new, didn't get the game till last Christmas, but until now I could not say I have beaten the game, now I can also say that this game is a must-play.
Additionally I'm still in the middle of playing 3 games (not counting the one's I'm playing via emulation), and finished one more game just today. The game will go unsaid since I intend to review it soon.

Is that all? Yes, well...mostly, I have been doing a lot of music related things, but I have no way of recording myself so I'm not going to try and explain what I've been doing when in the end you won't be able to see them anyway. If people really have an interest (which I doubt) then I could do some low quality recordings and you can imagine how exactly I'm making music, while listening. Anyway stay tuned for a review and if people show enthusiasm then maybe an extra bonus!

I'm Out

Ramble?

Don't freak out. It's just another post.

Hopefully everyone got the joke from the last post (though it was a bad one). Anyone wanna know what's up? Course you don't, but you obviously have nothing better to do because you're already here.

I've read Harry Potter up to the 4th book, and that's probably as far as I'm going to get till summer since we've started reading big books again in school. I've been trying to finish most of the games I've got and these are mostly games that already have many reviews d I have nothing to add. I have finally beaten Okami on the Wii, although there's still stuff I wanna do on that game. The short in the short however is that the game is really awesome (I would say 8.9) and if you're not too threatened by the game's style, it's a must have. The other game that I have technically beaten, but again still have a lot to do is the DS port of Chrono Trigger. If you need me to tell you about this game, then go outside (or stay inside depending on the situation).

So what was the point of this? I felt like it, and in case anyone actually wanted to know what I've been doing (since it's obviously not posting), now you know.

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Super Mario Galaxy DS

Well this morning I decided I should post and what did I find? What is probably the next in a line of Mario re-releases. It was announced recently that Nintendo is apparently already making progress with a DS port of what is probably close to the best selling game on the Wii. In case the title doesn't spell it out for you I am talking about Super Mario Galaxy DS.

I don't know who came up with this crazy idea, but it's crazy. Porting SMG to the DS is easily possible and it's not the worst idea, but it's still a bad one. First, why port a game so close to after its initial release? If you wait a 5 or so years then maybe, maybe you could do it, but very few people are going to want this game even with its new stars and planets. Second, there's better things for Nintendo to be doing. If they really want to port a game, port Super Mario 64 to the Wii, and I am most definitely NOT talking about the virtual console. Give SM64 new better graphics, maybe some more stars, some unlockables, include some of the famous "lost bytes", and personally I would love it if you jacked up the difficulty, but then walk away. DO NOT take an already easy game (I'm switching back to SMG) and make it easier. Do not make challenges that are only slightly different from the others and say your giving us "new content." You know I've always hated Nintendo and this just breaks the last straw. I'm throwing away all my systems and getting myself a PS3. After all, Sony has so many better games that Nintendo it's not even funny. And you know what else gets me angry? I lost my wallet yesterday and when I found it today, the only thing in it was a note that said, "April Fools" well you know what?

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Brawl Character Textures

OK I think anyone who ever has or ever will read this blog (a small number I'm sure) can probably guess what I'm going to say first. "I'm really sorry I haven't posted in a while, blah blah blah, been really busy, blabdy blah." Well in all honesty between SAT, ACT, OGT, and a couple other T's topped onto my normal life really has left me busy. Also I have been lacking any material that I felt was post-worthy, because although some people probably can't tell, (couldn't really blame you) I strive for quality, not quantity. (But on a side note I have seriously considered making more, small posts about my life [because that's the only way I'll get more posts])

Well I certainly have a way of making short statements take longer (in fact this entire sentence was completely unnecessary!). But I'll try to cut it short. I just saw this awesome YouTube video of some guy who made a collaboration of homemade character textures in Brawl. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then that's sad, but everybody whose played SSBB knows that while it's a step up from it's predecessor it almost seems like Nintendo didn't even try to give some characters an alternate costume. However, with some codes, hacking, and creativity, we can know make our own character textures! Or you can just steal other peoples designs, your pick. Anyway I thought I would just say, "that's cool!" and leave you with the video. And so without further ado ('cept this) here it is:


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Japanese Have it Easy

What was with those last view posts? Well I happen to be a deep person...

Not really, but perhaps I'm more than meets the eye; and since you people can't see me, you at a big disadvantage. But now let's talk about more nerdy things.

No depth here but TMK (a site that now updates just as much as me!) recently posted a Japanese to English comparison of the game Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. Now, always love to see the differences between Japanese and English versions of games. Often there's a difference in translation, censorship, and/or copyright. TMK has a couple of these comparisons and I strongly recommend them. But to the main point.
In every single comparison except for M&L:PiT, the Japanese game was either harder or on par with the English version. I should think Mario fans should be familiar with Nintendo's "toning down" of games for us Americans. The most notable example is that Super Mario Brothers 2 was never officially released in the states till its recent appearance on the Wii virtual console (yes I do realize that it was in Super Mario All-Stars, but that doesn't count because it was called "Lost Levels" not to mention the graphics were different and there were minor changes to prevent known glitches). This is not the only example and if you need more go to TMK. Now, as I was saying, the recent M&L:PiT comparison shows that the Japanese version is actually easier! Many of the bosses have lower HP, when enemies heal it typically not as much as in the US version, as well as other things.
Now this isn't big news, but I thought I should share this and ask, "What up wit dat*."
*(Disclaimer: I do not approve of urban language or any major grammatical/spelling errors unless it is used to make fun of people who use said errors like water; thus please do not get angry at this quote. Additionally, if you are offended by this disclaimer you should go to/pay attention in school.)
And "wit dat"

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Complements

I've recently started an SAT course to help up my scores before I take the test. After the second day (after I received the scores from my practice test) I have been given the largest sum of compliments I think I have ever received. My score is already above average (around the 81 percentile) and they say that the mistakes I made are not too difficult to mend, thus meaning that I can easily do better. With the Huntington program (which is where my SAT preparation is occurring) I am also taking a speed reading coarse. Normally the goal for most students is to be able to read 300 words per minuet. On Monday I ran out of lessons (because they told me not to start at the beginning [presumably, because the first lessons are intended for lower grades]) and when I asked what I should do next time, they looked at my progress and proclaimed me a prodigy, due to the fact that I was at 500 words per minuet. They told me they had never seen someone get so fast so quickly. My vocabulary has been praised as being above average, and my ACT scores were higher than my SAT score despite my leaving many questions blank.

At this point it probably seems like I'm just trying to point out my good points in order to boost my ego (which is probably big enough as is). On the contrary I'm trying to display a slight bit of humility. My point is that I don't think I deserve most of these compliments. I got to 500 wpm, but honestly, I've been reading a rather long book (Ivanhoe) as well as some poetry for school and I'm barely reading at 200. The speed reading forces you to read that fast and while I can read that fast, my comprehension of what I read is nearly 0 at that speed. I've also never thought that I had a very expansive vocabulary, and maybe I just have smart friends, but I usually viewed my vocabulary as rather minuscule (for right here at least I was specifically picking larger words, but I am being serious).

It all makes me realize that I'm home-schooled. I have a number of friends in the same boat. I also have friends in public/private/non-home-schooled, but these are friends from scouts, work, etc. I should also mention that I am perhaps the most non-athletic male currently alive. I'm healthy, strong, but I have a major contempt for most sports. I could give my psychological conjectures as to why I think that sports are a major turn-off for me, but that's not important right now. I think my problem is that my whole life I have been taught to compare myself to the best, which is why in sports I view myself as low-grade compared to most, but academically I compare myself to the smartest people I know and (no offense anywhere) most of them are home-schooled. I just now have come to the realization that colleges and employers don't compare you to Einstein. I compare myself to the best, thus my hope of ever being great is low, but a college merely compares you to the other people who have applied. One does not have to be the best merely better than most. Perhaps my instinct of comparison to the best, would make some depressive, but it just gives me the mindset that if I want to get anywhere, I have to do better. My point is that the people I view as "the best" are only a small percentage of those whom I'm competing against for colleges and job opportunities. So as long as I'm close I'm good enough.
I'm not going to change my view on competition, after all if my current view has gotten me this far, why change it only to never improve myself? I'm merely offering my observations to those who may benefit from it.

I'm Out

Snow

Well it's certainly not national, but around here there is a lot of snow.
Driving is now dangerous and in some cases actually less convenient than walking. The branches of trees are breaking under the weight of snow and ice that has been pushed on them. And the snow falls ever-softly down.
What I'm getting at is that the weather is terrible, even dangerous, but within the danger I find the most beautiful nature. I can't say exactly why, but I felt compelled to walk in this danger, without a specific destination, only carried by my slight whims. The wind and snow beat hard on my face. The icy layer under the snow crushed with each of my steps only to give way to more snow. Not surprisingly, I came to a wood. I have been there often, and nearly every time there I seem to find beauty, but the dainty prettiness of the wood has always been best viewed under a blanket of snow. I walked through, finding no place where beauty did not stir. I would often pluck an icicle to feel the satisfying crack of ice. then I decided I was done I would not do anything more to disturb the beauty, and as I came to this decision I noticed the irony in it, since my footsteps disturbed more nature than anything else. I came to the creek, which still found the will to flow. It was covered with a thick layer of slush, and here I wiped snow off the ground and reflected. I love to indulge myself by sitting next to such beauty, listening to the subtle noise of nature and simply thinking. To me, the wood showed how God brings beauty out of ugliness and disaster. The wood easily makes me forget the ugly, black slush on the roads, and the extreme struggle of trying to push a car through that mess. No, I would say that snow brings more beauty than anything else. I wish I could have taken pictures of all that I saw, and perhaps I make go out again, but the beauty of an icy xylophone, isn't easily re-made, and now it only exists in the memory and imagination of those who have seen it.
Perhaps I will go out again, but for now the snow keeps falling, covering my footsteps.

...That was strangely reflective wasn't it? Perhaps I've been reading too much of the romantic poetry...

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Atheist God

Well now it's certainly been far too long (again). I suppose theirs a slight irony in the fact that the time when I have less that needs to be done, I do less stuff like this. Anyway, I was kind of waiting for something to blog about as opposed to making up something to post. Beside all those points, I have finished a reading a trilogy which could easily be my favorite series. Of course when I finished the last book I feel the way I always do when I come to the end of a great story. I don't know if it's the sadness that it's finally over or something else, but I find the only way to fill he hole that that feeling gives my is to think about the book, study it, analyze it. I do everything from memory, I don't bother to look up a small detail and if it was larger then I would remember it. So where am I getting? Well, normally I just think about the books, but for this one the more I thought, the more I felt as if there was some message I should be getting from the book. I guess I'm getting ahead of myself now though.

The trilogy is commonly known as the Mistborn series, it is very grand in scope and contains magical, political, and even religious themes. However, contrary to what even I would have guessed, when I looked into the book I concentrated on trying to find a religious theme. It seemed like the book said that if people do not believe in something, then they will have no hope. Makes sense right? Even hope must come from somewhere. Without believing in something, people will have no hope, without hope, people will fall into despair and then nothing will ever progress. So then that led me to think; what about atheists? I'm not atheist, so excuse me if I'm wrong, but atheists don't believe in a god do they? If that is so then how does an atheist get any hope, my first thought was that they get it from material goods, but that makes no sense. Hope is the eternal believe that things can work out for the better at any time, no matter the circumstances. Atheists could not get hope from material things since they are finite, yet for hope to be true, it must be based on something that never ends, otherwise it couldn't be eternal ad thus would be a false hope. So, this leads to the conclusion that atheists have no hope, but this can't be true, for I have met a few atheists and while none of them were the most optimistic, they most certainly believed that things could go right. Also, if atheists had no hope they would never bother to try to get people to believe they were right
Where then do atheists get their hope. Here, I make a bit of a logical jump, I can't expect most, or really any, to take this seriously, but just listen. Atheists have hope, (we're focusing on the people in general, not every specific case) this means that they must believe in something eternal and immaterial. What could possibly then be both those things but a god? The truth is that the atheists have a god, they just don't acknowledge it.
The atheists god is better known as chance. Chance does not have favorites, bias', or prejudices he just decides the outcome of life without thinking whether it would help men or harm them he doesn't care what happens or if anything happens. Silly right? But it would explain how atheists could possibly believe in evolution. For evolution to work, the RNA in our bodies must make a mistake, that happens,but only rarely. However since RNA copies DNA so many times then mistakes do happen. But, the chances that the RNA's mistake would actually help our bodies is a chance that's even a billion times smaller. They say that they world is a few billion years old, I don't agree, but we won't press that now. This means that I could find it plausible that perhaps one, maybe two useful mutations could occur, but more would be extremely skeptical. Now to this, evolutionists add that previously, radiation from the air made RNA mistakes more common, thus useful mutations are also more likely. The truth is however even if useful mutation becomes more likely for a monkey to evolve into a human there must be a few hundred useful and very specific mutations, let alone if a single celled organism is to evolve into the many animals we have now, there would need to be thousands of these mutations. So for evolution to have actually occurred would be a chance of one in a trillion. I've always wondered how people could possibly believe that something of such a small chance could ever occur. That is like saying if I put an infinite number of monkeys on typewriters, one will write a Shakespearean play. The fact is that can't happen because one can only get a finite number of monkeys. So how could one believe that such a small chance could ever occur, unless you believe that chance will do anything no matter the odds and thus something like this is now possible. It seems that unless you already believe that this is the only choice atheism has no real proof. However when looking at my own faith there isn't much factual evidence that can prove that I'm right, but once on assumes that it is correct there is near no end of evidence and proof of my faith. So one must assume that they are right in order to find any proof in their own theology. I think that there is undeniable proof that God watches us in his miracles. But that is only undeniable if one assumes that God did those things and that they are miracles. An atheist would wave the miracle saying that there is a scientific explanation, or he would say that all the witnesses were experiencing a hallucination. Thus for the very many miracles which we could not possibly even fathom a scientific explanation of they suggest hallucination. But for so many people to have the same hallucination at the same time would be a very, very low probability. Again this means nothing to the atheist because if even the smallest possible chance exists then he will view it as easily possible. So now we are at the same problem, he problem is one cannot prove a faith to an atheist because he is blinded by his own faith even more so than he would be by most religions.

Now what was the point of all that? I don't know. When I start to think sometimes I feel like I could be on the verge of something large. My logic here is not perfect I can see many flaws in it, but by realizing them perhaps I can avoid them in the future. I only ask that unless you yourself can see the holes in my logic, don't criticize it (although, looking back I don't think they're that hard to see). I would love to hear peoples opinions to my blasphemy since this is all what came out of my head, without any alteration and there are somethings I feel I should change, but won't. Do people think that I'm stupider than I would admit, or smarter? Do people prefer this to me talking about how much I like a game? Since this is the first time I really spent any depth writing philosophically I need some feedback, preferably of the constructive kind. So with that, I thank you for reading.

I'm Out

Mario Forever Hack

Well even though I think I've been posting absolutely WAY too much lately, I guess I can do another.
(Note: that was sarcasm, if you didn't laugh read it again)

So for some reason even though I said I wanted to update more often I actually ended up doing the exact opposite. Well I mentioned priorities before and I'll mention them again. I never actually intended for my blog to become even semi-dedicated to reviewing video games, but that seems to be what has happened. I think I've been focusing too much on the reviews as they're not that important. Rest assured I'll still review games, but I'm not going to specifically try to find a good one to review. I intend to do more long posts that will let whoever reads get a little piece of what goes on inside my mind. A similar post like that can probably be expected shortly after Christmas. Now, I'm not saying that people should be getting in line to read all my wonderful thoughts, I personally think that it's always intriguing to watch (or rather listen) someones thought process, and through such observations I think we can all become a little more logical.

For now I'm just going to mention a ridiculous hack of Super Mario Bros. I've known about this for a while, but I've never found the ROM until now because I was using the incorrect keywords. So if you want to find it try searching for Super Mario Forever. I can't describe how fun and frustrating this game is, but let me just show you the first screen.
Yes, there's no floor, and that's not a poor jump, that's where you start, right in midair. I really thought this was funny, of course I'm not telling how to get it, just that you should.
Anyhow, I think I've been taking too long so merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, and all that jazz.

I'm Out

Star Wars Episode 1 Racer Review

Alright So as promised another review.
I played this game on the N64 a lot as a kid, but it is better known to be an arcade game. I don't feel like a long introduction so lets just dive in.

Gameplay: Well it won't take a genius to figure out this is a racing game. There are 25 courses and none of them feel repetitive, although many are similar. I hope I don't need to explain the basic premise of a racing game, and it's the same thing here. What is great here is the upgrading. In each race you can win drugnuts, which is money. You can spend this money in he parts shop to upgrade your pod racer. This ends up being an awesome gimmick as upgrading one pod will upgrade all of the pods you've unlocked. There's plenty of unlockable pods and none of them feel the same, since they differ in stats and how easily they explode. Coupled with this is the games speed. In this game 300 is considered slow and while 500 will be the norm, it's not too hard to get above 1000. Also there is a huge difficulty gap in the game, which is annoying. The beginning of the game is easy and hardly takes any effort to beat, but then about halfway through the game it becomes mind-numbingly difficult. I wouldn't actually care about this if the game wasn't so hard that after 6 years I still haven't beaten all the courses. So there's no items alla Mario kart, which is a blessing and a tragedy. Without items the entire game boils down to skill, which lowers the multiplayer value since newcomers will never want to play. However, having a racing game that's all skill and no luck isn't that bad, especially after playing Mario Kart Wii. While you may lose, it' not cheep in any way other than that the computers are horribly over skilled in the latter courses. So it's a fantastic, fast, and difficult racer.

Music: So, only a few gripes so far right? Well if I gave individual scores for each category like some people do this would unfortunately score low. What's the problem? The music, or rather the lack thereof. There is the music for the title screen and on the final lap you get a great a great song from the movie, but it's always the same song. But that's not even a problem compared to the fact that otherwise there is absolutely no music. I can't understand why that is, but this means that the only thing you ever hear are the sound effects which can be annoying (if I have to hear Anakin Skywaker call me a slimo again I'll puke). So this is just sad, moving on.

Story: You kidding me? It's a racing game! I don't even know why I left the category here. The only time I will ever complain about story is in an adventure, action, or RPG game. This has no, and needs no story. Nough' said.

Replayality: I said something about multiplayer, but multiplayer's main problem isn't that it's not newcomer-friendly, but that you can only play with two players. I can see why they did this, as sometimes it's hard to see what's on the screen with one player, let alone when you only get half the screen. But without 4-player action the multiplayer really suffers, especially when Mario Kart 64 is sitting nearby with 4-player compatibility and a much more friendly approach to newcomers. Also once you beat a course there's no reason to go back in single player because you won't get money. So replayability is only found in the fact that you will have to play this game over and over again to beat the latter courses.

Graphics: Alright, this section just might get a perfect score. It seems that what the developers didn't put in music, they put in graphics. Compared to today I'm sure most would shun what I say, but this game will literally push an N64 to it's limits. With the high speeds and great graphics the N64 can barley keep up and when your getting to the really high speeds the frame rate really drops, something I've never seen, even with smash brothers.

So in summary the game is fun it's even got more depth than a regular racer. However it gets a little boring on the easy tracks, especially with no music, and frustrating on the latter tracks. This game will be fun, but not for very long unless, like me, you refuse to let the computer win. Well I'm going to try to give the game an unbiased score (which is hard with all the memories I have as kid trying to beat this), but the final verdict is; 7.2/10. I think people should play this even if they don't like racing games (which I really don't) also I think if there was a sequel they could easily fix the problems with this one.

As a little PS, I'm sorry I didn't get this out sooner, but I had to paint my Grandma's house. So...

I'm Out