Thursday, December 11, 2003

Way of the Samurai. Get it. Now.
Went to EB today with an armful of dvd's and ps1 & 2 games. Mostly classic stuff, and movies from the beginning of the year. I didn't expect much. Expected more than $25 lousy bux in trade-in value tho. Thus EB makes yet another game's butt raw. So, I got way of the samurai because I heard it was a good game from some reviews I stumbled across while googling. Get home with it, and nearly 4 hours later, I finally come up for air to write this blog. THAT, my friends is how good it is. Video game crack in it's most potent form. For those few of us who new and appreciated BUSHIDO BLADE, it is like that, mixed with some soulcalibur, yojimbo and just a dash of anime thrown in. I will refrain from reviews, or description, since that's been done already. All I WILL say is that as I play the game, visions of my fav samurai flicks dance through my head, and I can actually act like my favorite character (I liked Sanjuro) Anyhow, its a free system, which means you can do whatever you want, good guy, villian, etc. You can try being crafty, brave(and foolish), disinterested, whatever. Be warned, you will die many, many, many times in this game....it encourages you to die like a "real" samurai, bloody, but true to your principles, or not, depending on how you play it.
Other news: Saw part of the Battlestar Galactica remake today. All the reviews were right, it sucked. The 15 minutes I saw was mostly people whining. Not in fear for their lives....just....whining. "Our planet blew up, this sucks!" seemed to be the attitude. No one was grief stricken, it was like watching spoiled brats reluctantly reciting their lines. No shock, no horror, no togetherness. This shit is NOT Battlestar Galactica.
Back to the samurai stuff. While playing that game, I came to the conclusion that the "way of the samurai" isn't dead. See, the "samurai code" was just like our ethics and cultural mores of today. It didn't mean that all folks of the samurai class followed it, it was a summary of beliefs that everyone thought was the "right way" to live their life. Much like "good people" today pay their taxes, obey the law, and don't kill in anger. (yeah, right) In 1878, the way of the samurai had become pretty much illegal. The gov. had decided to shed their feudal ways and become a republic. If you were a samurai at that time, you either clung to your old ways, or you started anew. Anyhow, to kill a ramble of potentially epic proportions, I believe that my friends and I, twenty something college grads (or at least folks of college grad age) are our generations version of samurai: Upon graduation, or at least striking out to start our own lives, we lose the patronage of our "house" Our parents/family no longer care for us/are responsible for us. We must make our own way in the world. Do we embrace anarchy and bite, backstab, claw our way to whatever fate we get with ruthless abandon? Do we try to stay true to our own "warrior code" and value honor and integrity in a world seemingly chaotic and turned upon it's head? How do we live? What do we do? The last samurai (no I haven't seen it yet, dammit) of the late 19th century had to decide what they were going to do with their lives. In this age, with economy going crazy, prices, values (both monetary and psychological) in constant flux, there does indeed seem to be a parallel. In short, one has to choose to either FIGHT the monster (within?) or BECOME the monster. One must either help, hinder, or GTF out of the way....

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

I hate freeloaders. I dropped outta college and everything I knew to run home a hundred miles south because my mom needed me. All I've gotten in the 4 long years since is drama and b.s. from my family. When Ineed help, everyone is too busy. But when someone needs their computer or car fixed, all of a sudden everybody has their hand out, and I'm just supposed to volunteer my money, parts and time to fix their junk. I now wholeheartedly understand why so many mechanics are surly and antisocial. Nobody can be straight with you, everyone always has to try to find an "angle" or something. All I get in this town are people trying to get me to give them money for some investment, or women or "long lost cousins" trying to move into MY house that I've busted ass for. God help me if something happens and I ever get hurt...

Things are looking up tho. Delivery of big block is this weekend, and things are picking up in the tech sector. Maybe I can finally stop being "overqualified". Might have a chance at a programming job, and also might have a chance at a teaching job locally. If I stay here for ANOTHER year, that is. But, I think shooting for my master's is probably the best thing I could do. Gonna finish up on the stuff that I'm doing now, but I really think that's what I'm gonna do. After that, priority is getting out of this city at full speed. Tired of shady people trying to hustle me all the time.

Monday, December 08, 2003

Ok. paper WASNT due tonite, just regular old classwork. Thank goodness. Mainly usability survey for PGP stuff. Nothing much important happened, found out my instructor of the last month was a former classmate at juco. I don't remember the man, but then again, the class we shared was accounting. I remember nothing from accounting, except for the tortuous final. This was the mid/late 90's, so we were still doing accounting by hand. None of that computerized stuff. I also missed alot of class, because my student government meeting was at the same time. So, I was given video tapes by the instructor, and every night I would watch these things, go to sleep within the first 5 minutes, and wake up, and play it again, only to go to sleep...AGAIN. You could say that the only reason I passed that class was through osmosis and determination. I also don't remember much about that time because I was working 32 hours/week as a cashier at a dept store, 20 hours a week on campus as a computer nerd, time outta class doing student senate, carrying 18 hours at juco, and had a girlfriend on the side. Yah, I was an overachiever.....
usability survey seemed to be a project for instructors' master's program. I thought you had to HAVE a masters to teach there....hmmm.....Anyhow, master's program doesn't seem real bad, I may go for it. I better decide real quick, because program starts a month after my projected graduation date.....
Wierd....for some reason blogger didn't post my dec 7 post. Ah well. Nervous, because as I do my piddling bit of homework before class today, I see today as the last class on the syllabus. Hope to Goodness that's not true, because if so, I got a five page paper (that determines my grade) that I haven't even touched yet. But according to the syllabus, we have one more homework assignment, so maybe I'm wrong?
Good News: FOUND BUSHIDO BLADE!!!! Bushido Blade was the best fighter ever made for original playstation. Kinda like soulcalibur, but lots more realistic, complete with great arenas that looked like they came straight out of a chambara (samurai flick) movie. My friends and I would play this game for hours on end, just to see the cool deaths....;) They made a sequel, which sucked, of course, but that's not the point. I hear there's an (older now) game on ps2 called way of the samurai that sounds promising. There was another I found at EB that looked good too, but now can't find it. Will have to keep looking....

Sunday, December 07, 2003

Winter jitters is killing me already. I gotta stay on course. Tired of being broke. Not liking the way my life is in general right now. Not liking my family much either ;) Reformats suck, just to let you know. I thought I was prepared, but after lending out so many times, my xp cd was scratched to hell, and so was the backup. Had to switch between the two to get back up and running. ONLY took me a whole day to find my office cd. NOW, I can't find my 2nd Initial D cd, and I'm tripping out. I know all I have to do is get them again, but that's not the POINT......Also tired out from all these allniters and early mornings....gotta get back on a regular schedule. So I guess I better go to bed now....