Kanon 17

Shiori's my second favorite girl, but wow they really really did her justice here.
More justice than Mai?
It's hard to say...Shiori's story is much less supernatural than the others; it is the sparkling vision of sad/happy? girl in snow.
But just the little moments make watching her oh so worth it.

I like how they're not forgetting everyone else at the same time, like when Yuuichi talked to Makoto on the hill.
You know Yuuichi's still sarcastic and mean and funny, but you can see it wearing on him.
I think this might be a new element of Kanon 2006 really, the fact that since they are going through everyone's scenario, and EVERYONE'S scenario is sad in some way, that the emotional toll is going to be HUGE on Yuuichi.
He's forgotten everything that happened 7 years ago, yet he's managed to realize:
1. He abandoned someone dear to him.
2. He ignored someone who needed him.
3. He met someone new who is going to die soon.
4. Spoiler spoiler spoiler.
5. Spoiler spoiler spoiler.

It's not a good feeling to have.

Waiting Game

I think my mother would have a heart attack if she was with me when I drive on the Taconic, pushing 80-90 nonstop.
I don't really speed that much, I just go the speed of everyone else.
However, the Taconic is freaking treacherous, curvy as hell, and the entire time I'm thinking, "Man, just one slip and there's no way I'd get out alive if I had a wreck here."
Rush hour made it extra special (in that while sometimes it was slow, most of the times it was a LOT of vehicles moving at oh too fast speeds on this snake of a road.)
I realized that I start playing mental games when on long highways, I start viewing cars that go at a constant speed in front of me (Slow, if you will) as obstacles, and I just start obstacle hopping.
It's somewhat subconscious, I was doing it on I84 when I was nearly asleep at the wheel coming back from RPI.
It was like...slow car, pass. Next slow car, pass. Next slow car, pass. Etc.
So I guess I go just above the speed of everyone else or something like that.

Anyway it's waiting game time.
It really wasn't an interview, it really was basically a meet and greet.
The position is pretty...freeform, it's like Wilson's been adlibbing as he goes, and I'm fine with that as I'm pretty good at picking up random pieces.
My only worry is between now and whenever Tony (corporate hierarchy confirmation person) gets back that they change their minds about giving me an offer letter or do a grilling (of the fish, sort of speak.)
Otherwise, hopefully I'll be out of here by February. (Yes moving south)

JC

I was honestly going to title this post Jade Cicada (with no space), and then I thought twice about how Google's indexranking pages work and that people randomly googling her name might have this post pop up.
And yet, why should I care so much?
Decorum?
What's it worth anymore these days?

Anyway, the series of unsavory wheel clicks that had been going on in my head over and over was that JC had been Chris.
Specifically the Chris who had come by and told me her room number.
He had dropped all sorts of clues when I kept pressing for information (but not her real name); he matched quite a lot of them and honestly I think it was a natural conclusion when I had finally reached home rather tired from RPI.
Jacket color, German last name, looks Asian more than German, anime shifts, game developer's club, knew what Touhou was, etc. etc. etc.

She obviously wasn't going to be on pyoko in the main chat but I remember miho had invited her over to arc a while back, /whois told me she was there.
I had to ask.
Yet she denied it.
She denied being Chris and admitted to having a huge panic attack Thursday and delibarately avoiding me throughout the convention.
That she had used the second floor overpass (I had known about and never bothered cause it's a roundabout route) and side entrances and had never gone to the game room on purpose.
That she was surprised Chris had given me so much information, and yet again surprised that I had found her on irc on arc.
Just your normal extremely private Jade.

It was like heaven and hell.
On one hand if my carefully reached conclusion had been proven true, I think I'd have been less angry but more disappointed.
It would have meant I HAD met Jade after all.
And Chris was quite a cool guy, we played PoFV for hours and honestly he was the only one who could beat me consistentedly (more like 50/50, but it got worse if I used my crappy controller and gave him my pink satapad).
That and it was fun watching Kanon with him (I like people watching Kanon :V)
However, it just didn't jibe, the vibes I got from Chris offline and the vibes I get from Jade online.
However her denial threw me back into the anger of before, though less white hot and now more muddled.

Honestly, I wanted to believe her.
I wanted to believe that there were two separate people here, and that I wasn't being screwed with again.
I wanted to believe in Chris and I wanted to believe in her.
And yet it would also mean I wanted to believe that she did not trust me enough to see me in person and had let me hang for three days with no notice of this.

This is a horrible horrible mix of emotions to have swirling and turning round and round in a washing machine.
I don't like drama.
And I know some people actually read this blog.
But I need to write it down, because otherwise I'll twist myself further into knots.

It's funny, if you start from the beginning of this blog you'll notice I write some very personal posts, and as it goes on it becomes more and more gaming related and I hardly bring up my life.
This has been the first real e/n post in a while, I almost forgot how to write them.
Guess that's what you're supposed to use them for some times.

Genericon

Only screwed up once going up, was blinded by sun and ended up on 87-S instead of North, went to one of those gaps in the railings with a big ass NO U TURN SIGN and made a uturn.

It's pretty cold up in Troy, mostly stayed in the video game room showing POFV/IAMP/EFZ/MBFT/RBO.
Fought the same guy first round in like 3 tournaments and lost to him all 3 times (except for smash, where I raped 9-2 when they forced us to play freaking FFA with Peach, then lost in 1v1 versus a Jiggly of pain)
Watched Haruhi 10-12 again for awesomeness.
Watched Kanon with two other people from shrinemaiden boards for funnies.
Brady borrowed my car (AND IT WAS SNOWING), but he had promised a to fill up the tank and I was nearly empty so I said sure why not.
Incidentally Brady's apartment was like worse than Brennan and mine...except they didnt have cockroaches (probably too cold for even them).
Seems like they don't really live in it, just sleep in it.
Or something to that effect.

Anyway, we get to the main complaint I had with this con, which I'm sure way too many people know by now (I asked so many people it was ridiculous.)
That is my main reason, or rather 90% of my reason for coming up failed to materialize.
Online there is a girl named Jade Cicada (Additional space to counter page rank algorithms), she's the one who suggested I come up to the convention.
Now keep in mind I really wouldn't do this for anyone, but Jade's intelligent enough, likeable enough and interesting enough to warrant a visit.
Seeing as I have an interview through a family connection soon and that if I land that job I'll probably be moving, I was like sure why the hell not, as it would probably be the last time the drive to RPI would be tolerable (two hours).

I didn't expect to play some massive mind game once I got there.
Keep in mind I don't know Jade's real name.
The tidbits of information I had at that point were:
She definitely goes to RPI, she's half-german, half-taiwanese, in the game developer's club.
That's it.
Not much to go on, but she said she was going to be a volunteer for an anime showing, but didn't know where/when.
Whatever, work it out there right?
In retrospect I should have known.

Registration was 25 dollars, it could have been ten if I used Brady's student card, but I felt bad about being THAT cheap plus Brady wanted to play in the magic tournament (200 dollar prize) anyway.
Talked to a Reisen cosplayer. Yes male. Haha I think I was the first who recognized him as I kept staring at him in the registration line and couldn't resist chasing him down afterwards.
Afterwards, I checked the showing rooms when I got there, didn't see anyone remotely asian and female, and set up in the gaming room for a while.
Showing POFV and IAMPs and all that.
Anyway somewhere along the line a random guy (nametag says Chris) recognizes Touhou and is like hey, and we play POFV for a while.
Then he asks if I'm from JHU.
This isn't common knowledge so I answered yes along with how did you know?
He said that the person I was looking for (Obviously Jade) would be in 318, but he said that she didn't give a time.
Right here I should have pressed him for more information but it didn't register to me.
Since shifts were every four hours I felt that it shouldn't be hard to find her.
So I played games...and every four hours I'd check room 318.
And there would be someone obviously not Jade there.
I'd check the other two rooms half the time just to be sure, and to EACH volunteer I explained my story.
I'm sure I must have sounded hilarious, I must have talked to 70% of the total volunteers for Genericon.
Each one denied/had no clue, they suggested I go to HQ to see.
Well I went to HQ and looked at the volunteer list and there were only two asian last names, neither in 318.
Bleah.
Asked the two about it, both had no clue (One didn't even go to RPI, she was there from mm...Albany I believe.)

Anyway met Chris the next day again and asked about it, he said she had a German last name.
Stupid. Me. Should have figured that out. But hell if I know German last names, and that list didn't ring any bells.
Plus he wouldn't give me her real name, as she had explictly told him NOT to.
Gah more mind games.
Played a bazillion more POFV with Chris and Strider (from sm boards) and left my lappy in the videogame room on cpu matches when I went to check the anime showins just so people would get interested, lost over and over in fighting games against Nuclearcheese :V
Chris also mentioned that Jade had been in 330 during Loveless lying down under the soundboard, this made me feel silly as I had been in during the Loveless showing and had talked with the person running it lying down near the front, only I hadn't recognized that it was Chris (we didn't recognize each other as it was dark and Loveless is so bad you can't turn away, but I didn't bother to check the people next to him on the ground.)

Anyway third day since Chris had said the day before that she had stuck mainly to the Great Hall (never went to the game room), I just set up my laptop there and waited with a sign taped to it.
NoShow.
Toward the very end, I got to talk to someone named Hui? Hsang about the entire thing, as she seemed like a head of volunteers (was in HQ a lot) and she got a big laugh out of the whole thing, I felt sort of silly every time she walked by and smiled out of pity -_-a
Well, that's the con wrapup.

What's chocolate worth?

What's Noka worth?
This is old, I just forgot to put it up a while back.
Anyway, the author basically deconstructs one of the most expensive chocolates being sold on the market today in ten parts.
By the end of it you'll know more about chocolate than you'd ever want to know and be a pseudo-expert yourself!
Completely obsessive, and an amazing read.

From there though I was able to find the author's review of FIFTY country fried steaks, which was just batty and all sorts of amusing.

CATCH MY HEART! VERY MELON!

BURAAAAAAAAAAAAAA BURAAAAAAAAAAA

EFZ

Bored and from work.

The EFZ netplay is shaping up to be on par with IaMPs, which is actually a scary thought, as I might try to seriously play EFZ.
I've already started losing to VMan and casually practicing Akiko combos (why am I using her she's not easy nor my traditional playstyle at all =O)
Honestly the only thing holding me back before was no one in person to play with, that and I absolutely can not stand subpar lagplay, it's my first person shooter genes.

I don't really hate the game like the people in channel that must not be named do, I just think getting a knockdown if you're a good player is like winning the entire match in that game, the okimeze is that retarded, that and the rejuggles are...silly (everyone has dloops!)

Although that girl VMan uses...with the plates (I wish he'd just go Misuzu so I could beat him out with Akiko jB/5B cause they really stuff anything she has) has all these superarmor type moves that blow my jump-ins, okimeze out of the sky.
That and he can actually combo for a bazillion hits.
It's quite annoying to watch yourself be air thrown comboed 5 times in a row and not be able to do anything about it.

I almost say they should do this for MB now, except FT is not what most people play; all sort of version issues come up if you start switching between two different versions of a game.
Maybe that pc demo can be expanded to more than what we got with the Lens...one can always hope.

Saitama is going slowly, D block is all encoded, just didn't upload yet.
Unfortunately there are more holes in the replays than the pdf indicated, it's like missing the entire first half of block H for no reason listed.
There's also a replay that is 365KB, I fastforwarded it at like 10x speed and it still took like 2 minutes.
It's Youmu vs Youmu, and it is by far the most boring match ever, the first 5 minutes there was no damage or something like that.

FUCK YOU BALTIMORE!

Ahahahahahahaha I think someone doesn't like Baltimore car commercials.

Kanon 15

Usagi-san!
Mai is completely and eternally squee.

Type Moon Collection

Not bad for trading figurines.
Maybe if they replaced the Ciel with a Sion...though that's quite a good Ciel.
I just don't like Ciel!
-_-a

IaMP again

Saitama tournament 2 is going up on youtube.
The bracket is weird but still Japanese, 11 blocks of 5, fight everyone else in your block, person with most points moves on into a single elim bracket.
A loss early on is basically fatal, so it's like single elim except you have more chances to lose early on.
Everyone gets a lot more guaranteed playtime though.

Ah well, least you get a lot of matches (Freaking uh 110+ uh...12 I think), even more than freaking Tohgeki.
Ugh this is going to take forever.

Results are pretty loltastic though:
1. Alice
2. China
3. Yukari

Low-mid tier in first and two worst characters in the game in second and third.
TIERS DONT EXIST!

Youtube video comments

This comic is just weird enough for me to thouroughly enjoy it.
I think the only thing remaining for 100% satisfaction would to be a math major (as it seems he is.)

ANIMEJUNKIES LIVES

The legendary mass naked child eventers have returned!
Which is amazing.

<|7hs|> i mean most of the original lineup probably fled the internet in shame by now

Inventor of instant ramen dies at 96

What a hero.
Seriously, one of the most influential foods of the century, hands down.
Also, who the fuck are the college kids who votes Shin Raymun their favorite ramen?
That shit is spicy nasty and impossible to slurp down!
Crazy kids.

Kanon 12-13

Mai ai Mai ai Mai ai Mai ai MAI AI.
Wow, 4 years ago I saw this thing called Kanon...and in 13 episodes it managed to deliver a semi-coherent decent emotional story.
Four years later and I'm seeing this thing called Kanon again...and it's completely blowing me away.

Anyway...
Scene 1 hit:
School dance with Mai in the dress.
Completely and utterly awesome.

Squee?

So I finally stopped stalling and started watching Kanon (2006)...
It's...amazing.
It's like the old one +10, and they're going for 26 episodes.
Char development is off the charts, people I didn't like I like (Makoto's a lot cuter instead of being annoying), people I liked I like more.
Kyon as Yuuichi hits so many bullseyes it's ridiculous.
Yes it's sad girl in snow, but it's done so well it's putting a big silly grin on my face when I watch it.

I think...the post title describes what I feel sometimes watching this series...
Since I saw the old one I know what's going to happen, but seeing it redone is worth the time...

And of course I'm looking forward to two scenes:
The dance with Mai at the school.
The dance with Shiori in the courtyard.

No surprise these two are my favorite characters.
Person A: "You're fangirling out on me!"