Where have I been?

Well I haven’t said anything here in quite a while, have I?  Well, I actually started using my Livejournal, and… I haven’t stopped.  Basically all that’s really happened is I’ve moved to Indianapolis and started wakeboarding.  I got quite a nice injury over the last weekend.  I’ve also started playing Brawl a lot more and joined up on All is Brawl.  The job search is still proving fruitless, but I’m not giving up any time soon.
Anyway, I’ve added links to my LJ and AiB profile on the sidebar.  I don’t know whether or not I’ll really use this anymore, I guess the few people that actually look at this page will have to wait and find out.

In case anyone cares

I’m out of town over the weekend and plan on moving Monday.  Just so you know.

Planning with Jnkolm

Two posts in one day? What is the world coming to. Anyway, enjoy some of our silliness on AIM after the break.

Doth thou protect too much?

So it’s the night before Acen, and my mom comes downstairs to ask me a question.

“Who’s driving tomorrow?”
“My buddy Joe is, in fact, driving tomorrow.”
“Oh good, I was just going to come down and warn you that driving in Chicago is more difficult.”
Are we really going to have this conversation?
“Uh, mom, I think I know that.”
“No, it’s really more difficult.”

Apparently yes, we did have that conversation.  And it ended with her being offended that I knew Chicago was a big city with large quantities of traffic.  I can accept you want to protect me.  But please don’t do it unless you’ve thought through it a bit to see if it’s actually going to help me or if it’s going to get you upset at me because I already knew.  Telling me there’s lots of traffic in Chicago, is silly.  Telling me we’re going to be traveling on some toll roads is not.  But you didn’t tell me that, I just happened to see it on the map that I printed off a few minutes ago.

Anyway, Acen tomorrow, I plan to be late enough to miss opening ceremonies but not so late as to be gauche.  Which puts it around 2 PM.  And given the way they monkey around with badges there, I probably won’t get anything done until 3.  Whose Line is from 9:30 PM Saturday to whenever we decide we’re tired of entertaining the crowd.

Freedom!

I took both of my finals today, and sold back my Math book, so I’m free! My current plans are to move to Indianapolis in a few weeks, once I get just a couple things straightened out. I’m trying to get something like a help desk job, if that doesn’t work, then I guess I’ll settle for a minimum wage job. Anything to get an income going. If all goes well I’ll be staying there for quite a while, it makes a lot of things so much easier.

Additionally, I’m slowly getting the Whose Line videos from Anime Punch uploaded. They should be done by the time I go to bed. You can click the Youtube link in the side bar to see them and the show at Sugoicon. Acen’s turn around time should be significantly shorter, mostly because I’ll be living in the cameraman’s house. XD

Lucky Break

Well, one of my finals got canceled because the teacher couldn’t find proctors for it. That’s cool for me, since I was already pulling an A in the class. For those that really needed the final to pull up their grade… on the one hand, sorry, on the other hand, if your grade is broken without the final, I’d have to wonder how well you’d do with it.

Beyond that, I’m going to Indiana this weekend. Jessica is coming down, we’ve got plans to watch Evangelion – You are (Not) Alone. So hopefully I’ll be able to review it next week for Hikikomori. I think we’re also going to try and go boating on Saturday. With Ben, Joe, Nathan, Jessica, and myself in one house, whatever we do is going to be epic.

Spoilers with jnkolm

Hoorah, school is almost done. All I’ve got left to do are three finals, one or two this week and then whatever’s left next week. Then I’m out for the summer. I might move to Indy, since I’m in the online degree program, I can go pretty much anywhere I want. And Indy is just infinitely more convenient for the anime conventioning and such, no more adding 4 extra hours to get anywhere. Well, except Anime St. Louis, but I’m sure I can somehow coordinate that with coming back to for a doctor appointment or some such.

That’s all I’ve got of actual stuff to write on. Outside of school and anime and the obvious two video games, my life is pretty much nil for until next week. But, I do have relative named Joe, also jnkolm, that I converse with alot. We come up with some… interesting discussions. So, since I can, I’ll attach one of them to this blog. Keep reading after the break. And if for some reason you can’t read the title, SPOILERS!

Rant: Pharos Lighthouse

Alternate title: How to ruin a game in 100 easy steps.

I originally posted this a few months ago on my Myspace blog, but seeing as it’s just as likely to be read there as here (read: probably not), I’ll repost it.  And for the record, yes, I’ve beaten FFXII since then.

So I’ve almost finished Final Fantasy XII.  Overall, I think it’s a good game.  Storywise, it’s a step up from pretty much everything Square has offered in recently.  Combat-wise, I think it’s the best ever.  I thought FFX-2 was a step in the right direction, and the free-flowing dynamic in this game is even better.  And as for difficulty level, this is the first FF game since 1 (yeah, a LONG time) to really put my party in danger, though I suppose some of that could be my penchant to micromanage more than let the computer take control.

The End of the Universe

Well, for those very few of you keeping score at home, the UIS thing has almost been straightened out.  It seems like I get to blame LLCC for part of the problem missing a class on my transcript when it was sent off a few weeks ago.  How they pulled that one off, I’ll never know.

Anyway, I don’t have much else to say, so how about another Youtube video?

My kingdom for an AI

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon friend code – 0688 5570 2384

I’ve been playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon – Explorers of Time. I like Pokemon, and I really like Roguelikes, what can I say? The game has been great so far. The story is a cut far above the norm for a Pokemon game. The gameplay is pretty unique for a Roguelike with the whole Pokemon move system being thrown into the mix.  And when did Venonat become such a freaking tank!?  My main character is a female Charmander named Ichirin, and my partner is a male Squirtle named Rakuen. The team name is Eternium. And I just cleared the Crystal Cave.

But there’s one problem I have, the AI, specifically the utter lack of pathfinding. Choosing to have your Pokemon set to “Follow me!” is tantamount to suicide because then they won’t move into attack; you’ll have to reposition the enemies for them. If you set them to attack, well, you’re bound to get split up when you walk out of a room or past a crossroad because he’s more concerned about the enemy than what his leader is clearly trying to do. Having them set to run away won’t guarantee that they’ll actually run from an enemy, I watched one of my Pokemon die because he kept crossing back and forth over his own path.

I can, however, deal with Pokemon losing tracking when they’re split up between multiple rooms, since it happens in every other Roguelike, but I’d like to think we’re to a point where characters can remember what path their leader took out of a room.

All I’m asking for is just a little more intelligence. When I engage an enemy, I’d like a little support without having to tell my Pokemon to run off after every little threat. I’d even accept it if they made like a 5 panel radius that they’d move away from me in, just as long as they don’t go completely berserk and end up completely lost. And when I set someone to flee, he should come toward the leader and run past him so I can pull the enemy off. That’s it. Is that so much?