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NightPhaser Spiral (N.A.K.)
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| Heh, we're in there. |
[29 Nov 2009|05:24pm] |
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>> Ganked from Dragoneer's FA journal:
At 4:00am, I started to ponder (as I am dangerously capable of doing):
Are there cultural differences in Furries based on region? Do furs from North America handle things/view events or artistic themes differently from those over in Europa? Or out in Asia and Japan. I know that in some countries the furry population count is so low that we can literally count them on one hand.
It's a weird question to ask, really, but I've often wondered. Sure, there are small pockets of furs here and there -- all over the world, really. The Russian Furs have Russfurence out in Moscow (http://www.rusfurrence.ru/2010/) and Japan has Kemocon (http://blog.kemocon.com/). Are their cons run differently, similar, is there more emphasis of costuming or panels? What separates and what binds us together? I don't mean this in a bad way, either. Far from it. More of a pondering, cat-dangling-over-a-woodchipper type of curiosity.
We're all united by a common interest, and FA has proven that Furs exist everywhere. *EVERYWHERE* and we have a huge pool of interesting IPs connecting to us daily (we're generally in the top 500 for the ENTIRE COUNTRY OF URUGUAY! Whassup with that?).
#1 - Rank 507 Uruguay
#2 - Rank 1,505 Norway (We didn't forget you)
#3 - Rank 1,790 New Zealand
#4 - Rank 2,143 United States
#5 - Rank 2,442 Canada
#6 - Rank 3,030 Ireland
#7 - Rank 3,371 Mexico
#8 - Rank 3,846 Venezuela
#9 - Rank 4,601 Netherlands
#10 - Rank 5,611 Malaysia
#11 - Rank 5,625 United Kingdom
#12 - Rank 7,855 Japan
#13 - Rank 8,431 Thailand
#14 - Rank 8,603 Sweden
#15 - Rank 9,205 Poland
So what about it? Furries are popular all over the world. Especially in Uruguay for some very strange reason. But back to the original question: are there any cultural differences in the fandom or are we one of the largest melting pots on the planet here?
Just sharin' stone.
<< nightPhaser >>
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| Oh, great, here come the manly tears. |
[28 Nov 2009|11:56pm] |
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"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?
But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something."
"What are we holding onto, Sam?"
"That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for."
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| On certain comic/game-to-movie adaptations. |
[19 Nov 2009|10:42am] |
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One day, at a fast-food restaurant:
"Alright, here's your KFC, sir. That'll be fifty ringgits."
"Okay, here you... wait, this isn't KFC."
"Of course it is, sir. Notice the label on it, the well-designed package, the colour schemes, and the aroma of its herbs and spices."
"But this is a lambchop!"
<< nightPhaser >>
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| Let me get the oi-l can. |
[18 Nov 2009|09:11am] |
>> I'd been playing that Wizard Of Oz DS game. (Lion's sorta hot, and Toto's got blonde eyelashes, moustache and... chestruff?)
Anyhoo, MadTV sketch:
MadTV - Wizard of Oz
Dorothy's gonna have to choke a witch.
<< nightPhaser >>
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| Like Chiclets, but more bio-degradable. |
[16 Nov 2009|11:45am] |
>> Here're some microficlets. Just thought I'd put them here for non-Twitter'd folk. They're also a bit expanded. =)
Albion slowly reached out with an enormous arm, and patted the ceiling of the cavern with an eight-fingered hand. The area of bare rock the giant touched was suddenly covered with a shallow layer of clear, glittering crystals.
He was alone in the tunnel, immobilized. While the material hardened around his legs, Kamarul realized that he does know what the smell was. Earwax.
It's been three years since Mom died. Every year, I come here with a pack of salt, a knife and a slab of clean marble. I catch any rats that escape from the old house, and do what needs to be done. It's just one night, every year, but I do it for you and for everyone. Requiescat in pace, Mom."
Me? I have never been happier in my life! It's so sudden! I woke up on Monday as someone who had no worries at all, ready for anything. Hm? Yeah, I'm not sure what I should do with that brain in a jar I found in the dining room yesterday, though.
It was the first time I saw my old baby booties. They were pink and knitted from soft wool. It was tied up along with another set, also pink. I asked Mom why the second pair was so much smaller, and she started sobbing.
<< nightPhaser >>
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| Old, married fool. |
[13 Nov 2009|05:58pm] |
>> Pak Pandir is the Foolish Old Man of Malay folk literature. The more popular stories of him have been collected in books like Cherita Jhenaka by scholars, but Pak Pandir is pretty much a meme of his own. He is also married to the long-suffering Mak Andeh, who is the "straight man" to his naivete.
In one story, he is suddenly in need to relieve himself and needed a place to put away a sack of salt he was carrying. He stowed it away in the safest place he could think of: under a river.
In one told to my mother by her mother, Pak Pandir learns of a buah pus ("pussy fruit") and unwittingly grabs a tiger's testicles instead.
Finally, here Pak Pandir is appropriated for modern times: http://ohtidak.com/oh-kondom-pak-pandir/ Basically, Pak Pandir complains that despite wearing condoms, his wife Mak Andeh still gets pregnant. When the doctor asks if he wore them correctly, he says yes, of course, he's no buffoon, however the condom is not circumsized and un-Islamic, so he did something to fix it.
<< nightPhaser >>
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| Strange Journey announced for USA localization! |
[06 Nov 2009|09:15pm] |
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SJ OST -- "Event ~ Morale" |
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>> Since I'm up in Kuala Lumpur right now, I can't write extensively or post pretty pics about this yet. Nevertheless, I'd been squeeing all the way since this morning, when I caught wind of it via mobile Net.
March 10th, 2010
(They really should ditch the gradient on "Shin Megami Tensei". Just sayin'.)
Main site: http://www.atlus.com/strangejourney/ (Contains English screenshots. GO SEE.)
Press release in ATLUS forums: http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5096
I'll get back to squeeing and preparing to show the JP version to Kaynine. <3
<< NIGHTPHASER! >>
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| To my dear friend. |
[01 Nov 2009|01:04am] |
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Monsieur __________,
I bid you a good day, for I hear there is an unusual period of good weather there in Jakarta. If you expect a comparison with my own particular location, then I'm afraid that I can only mention that it is bearable, but markedly unpleasant.
If I seem like a person only half the one you knew back when we tested the new televisual equipment, then perhaps you need to know that I am haunted. Spooked and drained of colour by a person who did not die. (As far as I knew, anyway.) I have spent the last few months in the company of low light and cold air after a day that only saw rain and overcast canopy, with only my note book and aggravatingly scratchy pen to keep these words from dripping out my ears.
Moments before I began writing this letter, I have made toasts to nobody and cut slices of fruit and dessert for everyone who was not there. All is hallowed, I presume, but nothing is ever clean. Not truly.
There are days, not much different from this one, where I wonder if any of this did not feel right simply because it wasn't right. Quickly, I catch the thought as it tumbles down into the mouth and the scribbling hand, place it level with my dry, bloodshot eyes. Upon examination, there is a fact to be considered along with that thought: who am I to presume to know what is right?
How am I to explain my thoughts and feelings to people who have never walked the edge, nor let their minds wander further than the painted fences put up around pastures where the fields are green and the wolves have only four legs. You have told me before that you do not think me queer, much less mentally disturbed, but I am sad, much sadder than you can comprehend, that all that you have known of me is what I have allowed you to know.
What I do know, about the clocks, and the starry sky, and the reels of film I did not send you, and the records I refused to play when you were on the telephone... my friend, I must tell you that there is only ruin in store for me, as the seconds pass by. Perhaps a place like this is already the best one such as I can hope for, and indeed that is an unfortunate way to use the word "hope".
I am a coward in ways subtle and damning, monsieur, and as such I shall sire no children to bear this shame. It would be a poorly-taught woman to consider having me in the same bed as herself, I would go so far as to say. If not for the child's well-being, then for hers, if at any moment I should wake up a different person, speaking in unknown languages and chewing on sheets of what used to be her skin.
I had considered throwing this letter into the cooking fires and writing a new one, but I suppose I can let that small detail pass. After all, if you were as true a friend as I thought you were before, then you would not mind learning of my habits, the same way you did not mind the fact that I enjoy the close company of men over ladies.
Alas, I can hear rumbles from afar, and the glint of electricity in the rolling clouds outside. Best I send this letter while my shoes can remain dry as I deliver it to the post service. I shall write more in my next reply, and perhaps include a few trinkets I made as result of interesting dreams.
Peace be upon you, good man, and praise the Almighty for your undisturbed sleep. May the visions in your slumber guide you.
With affection,
Monsieur ____________.
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| Non-English Language Journal meme |
[25 Oct 2009|09:05am] |
Friends, post a journal in your native or non-English language. Let's show some diversity in the fandom, and not be ashamed of where we come from.
>> Assalamualaikum, harap-harap hari kamu dipenuhi rahmat.
Baru-baru ini, seorang ahli masyarakat kami telah mengunjurkan jurnal dalam bahasa ibundanya, iaitu Bahasa Itali, untuk menyebut tentang kesukaran perlu berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Inggeris. Malangnya, dia telah menghadapi pelbagai jawapan yang biadap, penuh kebencian atau lecun bermandikan sinis. (Tak tahulah berapa banyak disebabkan perlakuan dia, dan berapa banyak disebabkan dia tetap tidak menggunakan Bahasa Inggeris.)
Rakan-rakanku, dengan ringan hati saya mohon anda unjurkan jurnal di dalam bahasa ibunda sendiri, atau dalam bahasa yang bukan Bahasa Inggeris. Mari kita raikan kepelbagaian budaya di dalam kumpulan ini, dan tidak berasa malu dengan asal-usul kita.
>> Nanti saya akan sunting jurnal ini dengan kandungan lain. Biasalah, mesti pasal Shin Megami Tensei. Aku tak kisah kau orang bosan atau tidak. =P
<< nightPhaser>>
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| Ask My Characters Things |
[16 Oct 2009|10:55am] |
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>> This is probably the third instance I tried this thing, let's see if enough people pick up on it this time:
Rules:
Ask a question to any of my characters (any of them. You cannot get too obscure.), and they'll answer you! Keep in mind that some of them are little bastards and might not answer your question the way you would like. I will try to answer everybody. Sound like fun? Let's go!
Mind you, I'm a Loads And Loads Of Characters kind of guy.
<< nightPhaser >>
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| Crawlin' in mah dungeon lalala la la |
[15 Oct 2009|08:45am] |
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SMT:SJ OST -- "Morale" |
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>> Finally got Strange Journey working on my Nintendo DS. My absence has been partially caused by intense squeeing at some old-school MegaTen action. Da-yum.
I'll put up some simple review for it, as much as I can with my poor grasp of Japanese. Interestingly enough, most of the interface is pretty easy to figure out, and the gameplay is quite import-friendly (especially if you're familiar with MegaTen spell names and such) WITH ONE EXCEPTION: Demon conversations will devolve into hitting (near-)random choices and hoping they don't get pissed off.
(There's actually a method to it, though. Once you get them happy twice through dumb luck, they ask what you want in a consistent set of selections. The top options are "recruit" requests by default, and knowing that, I was happily filling out my demon rosters. Yay.)
>> I do have some stuff I can say before any proper review, though:
The more I play this thing, the more it's like a polished spiritual successor to Soul Hackers. All the ingredients of the latter are there, and improved. I'm feeling remarkably less regret about SH not being ported/localised now that I've had some time with SJ.
Healing and revival are obscenely noticably expensive in this game. You'll be depending a lot on demon conversation (again, see how they added more reasons to talk to them rather than shoot them in the head) to revive fallen allies, get Macca (the currency) and Forma (materials for creating items and software for your suit). You definitely need to save up that money for buying suit software (a lovely carryove from Soul Hackers), equipment and summonin demons from the Compendium.
Another thing is that you can't afford to be a one-man-army in SJ (unlike, say, Persona 4's protagonist blazing through Shadows on his own). Due to the combat system and difficulty gradient, there is a real advantage to choosing allies with matching alignments (Law-Neutral-Chaos, colour-coded for your convenience) so that you can do CO-OP attacks (a la Fallen Enemy Rush from Persona 3/4). The enemy can do the same if it hits your party's weaknesses. I echo some sentiments wishing that Press Turn would come back, since it was ridiculously effective.
Make no bones about it: Strange Journey is old-school, including the difficulty level. Fortunately, they seem to know the right balance enough to offer nerve-wracking tension while you're against a demon several levels higher, but never being impossible (running away from fights almost always works, and is a valid tactic). Another thing is that they carried over the idea from Devil Survivor where fighting enemies with a lower level results in a big hit to the EXP you get, so the only way to level effectively is to pick fights with things that can kill you in three hits.
Also, and this is familiar to many people who've played the series before: If your human main character dies, it's instantly Game Over. Yes, they're still keeping that.
The various scanning software you acquire over the course of the game means that you'll be going through previous dungeons several times to find hidden goodies. This means that back-tracking or plumbing the dungeons involves more than smacking around weak demons (Auto-battle is available) since you'll be picking up Forma, unlocking previously-locked doors and fighting hidden demons along the way. You need to smack around those demons a lot anyway, since it's the only method for building up every demon's Analyze gauge which has various lovely effects.
>> That wasn't a review, was it? Play impressions?
<< nightPhaser >>
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