TKS 5.0

2007-06-13 13:50:30

By: Anotherfluke

Me and My Katamari: First Impressions

2005-12-23 04:56:06

By: Anotherfluke

Me and My Katamari first impressions Alright, spent about an hour with this game, and I am totally satisfied with this purchase. Let me start off by saying that Namco did an excellent job translating Katmari to the PSP. There is virtually no loss in quality of gameplay and environments in the move from console to portable system. Aside from a couple of small details, Me and My Katamari is an excellent first pick for my PSP.

The save data screen; dogs bark out the katamari theme.

The game manages to maintain it's unique flavor without feeling contrived or heated over, assuming of course that the translation follows suit. As an import title, it's easy to pick up and play. After a simple training level which is unavoidable, the player is taken to a simple first level very similar to the one seen in Katamari Damacy. Once completed, the player is then dropped onto an island and is free to move around, talk to animals and read signs.

The "menu" area.

Speaking of which, the story goes (and you can pick this all up from the intro movie and game intro without knowing japanese) that the prince, the King, and his wife are on vacation in the tropics, and their horseplay has resulted in a chain of island being destroyed by a tsunami. Ever the master delegator, the King has assigned the role of roller to the Prince who must use the katamari to roll up new islands for the displaced animals.

Each level begins by the Prince talking to an animal with a request.

Each level also begins with the Prince flinging himself cartoon style into the King's crotch!

Aside from the main story, the island on which the game's options are accessed is filled with um stuff. Scattered around the island are the animals you've previously helped. You can speak to them to redo their levels. There are at least 4 different menus that show up with a ton of unlockable stuff. The ferris wheel takes you to a bunch of wacky menus that list the different things you've picked up. The treasure chest lets you outfit the prince with a myriad of clothing. There is a post board of some sort which I'm assuming tracks your scores in minigames. The ducky in the hot spring saves your game. The scoreboard next to the ducky tracks your katamari size on each level. There are only 5 spaces, so it looks like there may be only 5 main levels... There is a photo album where you can take pictures (I haven't yet). The Hot air ballon lets you view the islands you've previously created, and pressing L or R will let the prince travel to either an island holding the Prince's cousins, or a volcano island which I haven't tried to figure out yet.

Once you begin playing in earnest, you would be hard pressed to find anything that was left out of the game for the PSP. Just as in previous games, you have two directional controls that you use to leverage your ball around, however on the PSP, this amounts to using the d-pad and the 4 buttons as two digital directional joysticks. This control scheme makes special moves much easier to perform, however the actual control of your katamari takes some getting used to. I found myself getting frustrated when I first started out because my katamari felt unresponsive, however this was mostly due to my tendency to rely solely on the d-pad for movement. After about 40 minutes I was able to control the game with minimal effort, although I still occasionally finding myself pressing hard on the d-pad and buttons trying to get my katamari over an obstacle.

Just starting out.

Another thing you'll notice with the gameplay is that once you reach a certain size (although you'll go through several sizes before this happens), the game will pause for a moment while the King talks to you. Once the game resumes, you'll be in the same area and the same size, although most of the stuff your katamari had accumulated will be gone, and all of the smaller items previously found in the level will also be gone. This also happens in the console versions of the game, although on the PS2 the transition is seamless, as smaller things simply disappear from the map as you continue to increase in size. It appears that in the PSP version, the developers opted to make a distinction between one size and the next. The pause does not take away from the game in any way, and it is noticeable only in that it hasn't been seen before, but it is something that you might want to know.

Before the pause. Note the katamari.

after the pause. Keep in mind that the game didn't remove the buildings, I rolled them up. The major difference is that the rolled up buildings have disappeared from the katamari, NOT from the playfield.

That isn't to say that you won't be picking up larger things. As you can see, you quickly grow from picking up shrubbery to picking up skyscrapers, and the PSP has no problems handling all of this. There has been little to no slowdown throughout the entire game, which is a very welcome thing. The excitement of rolling up tankers is amplified because you are doing it on a handheld system.

Peaceful city...

Ohhh No! There goes Tokyo! Go Go Katamari!

I highly reccomend this game to importers, and to people who will wait for the game to show up in the US. Importers can pick up their copies at Pink Godzilla.

Me and My Katamari

2005-12-22 10:41:13

By: Anotherfluke

Picked up this bad boy today with Kelcey (click for larger image).

The Prince's head is actually a PSP case that was a gift for preordering.

Mr K and I headed down to Pink Godzilla in the International District, who somehow managed to get the game here on the same day it was released in Japan. Don't know how exacly that worked, but I'll definitely be adding my impressions as I get into the game.

Looking forward to some multiplayer goodness too hehe.

My Weekend part II

2005-01-23 06:08:11

By: Anotherfluke

So um this is actually for last weekend and this weekend.

Last weekend on Saturday night I did something but I can't remember what I did. I think people came over or something, dunno. Sunday night I went with Tina and Kitty to The Baltic Room for the live KEXP Expansions show. It was good stuff, I liked it, but we didn't stay too late.

Monday went and saw House of Flying Daggers with people at Cinerama. It was good, but there was some couple making out in the back the whole time, quite annoying, especially during the quiet scenes.

Tuesday I got some nice seats to the Sonics vs. Nuggets game, so I went with Tina. It was cool, I don't think I've ever been to a Sonics game, at least not that I can remember. I was surprised by how much stuff went on that had nothing to do with basketball heh. They had human bowling, the t-shirt cannon, the blimp that drops gift certificates, and of course cheerleaders during the timeouts. It really was a crazy event. Since I got my tix from T-Mobile, I saw some people from work there too, including Tina's cousin, which was neat. Good time...

This weekend, came home for awhile, spent Saturday with Tina and fixed my computer, then went down to Yoshinobo's to hang out with way more people than I realized. Thanks go out to Quetz for the ride home. Got home late, and helped Kelcey come up with ideas for an AMV before passing out.

Then, got up early to get down to the Sakura-Con meetings, Exec then General. Afterwards I couldn't find a ride so I took the bus home and here I am now taking care of some last minute stuff before I start another week at work. Whew!

My weekend

2005-01-17 12:43:12

By: Anotherfluke

Lots of fun this weekend, starting off with an awesome show at The Showbox on Friday. It was an acoustic benefit show with the lead singer from Pedro the Lion, James Mercer and Martin Crandall from The Shins, and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab and The Postal Service.

James and Martin put on an awesome show, playing pitch perfect versions of songs from both albums, as well as a new song(!!!). It was a great song, and I look forward to hearing it on the radio as soon as it's released. It also showed off Mercer's talents, as he played guitar, harmonica, and sang with aplomb. Ben Gibbard also played an awesome acoustic set, doing songs from both Death Cab and Postal Service, with the latter sounding great as acoustic bits. He also did an awesome acoustic rendition of Michael Jackson's Thriller!

After the show Tina, I'la and I went over to Stef's for Lauren's birthday party. She left shortly after we arrived because it was quite late, but lots of people stuck around for more merrymaking and munching.

Saturday I prepared a draft letter for Sakura-Con and spent the afternoon visiting all of the businesses in the area and gathering intel.

Since it's late, I'll finish the rest of the post tomorrow...

M. Night Shyamalan Interview

2004-07-19 22:47:33

By: Anotherfluke

Went with Kate last night to see an M. Night Shyamalan interview that was nationally broadcast to 41 movie theatres. It was a pretty interesting interview, mainly because Night was adept at taking Joel Siegel's totally inept, vacant questions and twisting them into interesting answers. Thank God, too, because Joel Siegel is so freaking stupid it isn't even funny. He was asking questions like "So It must be fun being famous". When Night asked if he could swear, Joel said "Sure, go ahead", and then when Night said fuck, Joel said "You can't say that". Then when Night said shit, Joel said "You can't say that".

The interview began with Night showing clips that he felt defined each of his three previous films (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs), and went into some detail explaining how he felt each of them were received and the difficulties involved with realizing his particular vision and getting the audience to follow along. He also talked a bit about the technical aspects of his style of filmmaking, and the different styles he chose with each film.

Then the interview shifted, and he talked a bit about The Village, his new film coming on July 30th. He also showed a clip that was "The scene that I'll be using a few years down the road as the defining scene for this movie", so that was pretty interesting. He also let fly a couple of tidbits about the movie before taking calls from the audiences around the country.

Most of the caller questions were about his directing and writing processes, in which he talked about how he writes his scripts, why he prefers a small group of actors over an ensemble, how important the score is, how his movies evolve from beginning to end, and how he was able to option and keep control of his first blockbuster film.

In all it was a very interesting event, and one which I'd like to see happen again. That is, as long as it shows up on the Warren Report. It was interesting, but I'd have a hard time paying 10 dollars to go see something like this, but at an hour and a half, it was a deal nonetheless.

Weekend Update (sans Kevin Nealy)

2004-07-06 18:37:18

By: Anotherfluke

Let's reveiw, shall we?

Friday: Went over to Tina's place and hung out for awhile. I gave her a hard time while she packed for her trip to the Makah reservation. We had dinner (Chicken Soup, very tasty) then headed over to my house to meet Theresa and everyone else for some good old fashioned something-or-other. Aaron went down to Oliver's (A sucky bar to which I shall never return) and invited the rest of us to come down. When we got there in two separate cars, we found that Aaron was talking to some other lame people and completely ignoring us, so we all left to go to McCormick and Schmitt's. McC&S is an awesome place. The one we went to is on 4th and Columbia, and they have an awesome happy hour (two, actually; 4-6 and 10-midnight) where they have food for 1.95 that is succulent. I had a 1/2lb cheeseburger, Kelcey had Mussells in soup, Theresa had a Pizza, and Tina had a salmon burger, and it was all awesome food, huge portions, and uber tasty. Things would have been perfect if we hadn't accidentally forgot Kate at Oliver's.

Saturday: Woke up in a bit of a haze, but just in time to go with Kelcey, Kate (who had gotten over the whole left-behind thing), Arren, Theresa, Trapper, and Laurel to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It was a beautiful day, and just two days prior the Asian Forest exhibit had opened up. We saw Elephants, a Tiger, a Tabir, Monkeys, Puffins, Reindeer, Fish, a Snow wolf, Penguins (who love to piss and then swim in their white cloudy urine), Eagles, Aardvarks, Polar Bears, and Beluga whales. The beluga whale show was awesome, just like what you see at sea world. Definitely worth the 8 dollars! Afterwards we went to Cold Stone Creamery where the employees had to sing wacky songs every 5 minutes or so (poor bastards, mwa ha ha ha). Afterwards came home and went out with Theresa, Aaron, Arren, and Kate to Teddy's where we played ping pong and math games (not at the same time).

Sunday: I skipped Mongolian for the first time ever (not counting being in other states - not altered states), and was way lazy until about 4 when everybody got back. Pam and Kim showed up, and we all went down to Des Moines for 4th of July Fireworks (The full display can be found at Kelcey's website). After a bit Tina and her friend Michelle showed up and we all sat around watching the fireworks show. The whole show was good, but the ending was incredible. It took up my entire field of vision for almost a minute! The great thing about Des Moines is that the fireworks are extremely close to you, and it is not yet crowded. After fireworks, we came back to the house for a drink and a chat; Aaron Co-opted Tina's sparklers and made a sparkler bomb. It worked. Afterwards, Tina and I watched some Fullmetal Alchemist until it was bedtime.

Monday: I decided to skip out on the (rather expensive) Sci-Fi Museum, and chose instead to take naps and do laundry while everyone else trotted off. I napped more than I laundered, but it was worth it! Around 7, Tina stopped by with her friend Tanya, so we went out for bubble tea in the U district, where Tina showed us the pictures she took at the Makah reservation (It's really beautiful up there, you can see them HERE). Afterwards, we came back to the house and plowed through some more Fullmetal Alchemist before it got late and Tina and Tanya left and I finished my laundering.

All in all it was a very nice weekend, not too hectic, just a little lazy and a lot of fun. Would that I could have more weekends like this.

Some Lightning pics

2004-06-19 10:09:24

By: Anotherfluke

Courtesy of www.mahoutsuki.com.

Take the Nate Quiz

http://www.friendtest.com/viewquiz.php?account=anotherfluke

2004-05-03 17:10:00

By: Anotherfluke

I made a ten question quiz which basically shows how much you know about me. It's pretty interesting, and I'll probably use it for other applications. I wish it let me customize the quiz results. Anyways, here it is:

My First Meme!

2004-04-29 13:14:58

By: Anotherfluke

If you don't know what a meme is, try this one out. They're easy to make.

What 80s catchphrase are you? by anotherfluke
Name
Favorite 80s Food
You Are	"I've Fallen and I can't get up!"
You Officially Died on	March 17, 1990
Your 90s replacement catchphrase is	"Someone Set Us Up The Bomb"

Created with the ORIGINAL MemeGen!

SakuraCon overview

2004-04-26 09:37:18

By: Anotherfluke

For those of you who don't know about SakuraCon, It's an annual fan-run anime convention held at the SeaTac Hilton. It's a three day event, with various activities happening pretty much 24 hours a day. It's a lot of fun. This year I participated as a volunteer for their Info Booth, handing out paperwork and telling people where to go and what to do. Apparently next year I'll be doing a bit more. Here's the rundown.

Day 1

I worked every day at the Info Booth, from 11-3. Everybody else left at 6:30am, and I wanted to sleep in a bit, so I borrowed Aaron's van, drove down for my shift, drove back to pick up Kate (who had to go to school first), then drove back, getting back to the con around 5:00pm.
We got in line for the AMV Contest (http://www.animemusicvideos.org/) and watched some good stuff.
Afterwards Kelcey, Pam, Kat and I went out to Subway to grab some food, then came back and hung out at the Marriott bar until about 10:30pm. Then we went up to room 599 and had a little get together with Kelcey's friends Ben and his girlfriend, Pam, I'la, Kat, and Parker. Afterwards Kelcey left with I'la, Parker went to bed, then Kat, Pam and I went on a little excursion looking for earplugs for Pam. After stopping at like 5 7-11s, we gave up. You'd think stores near an airport would have earplugs (even the ghetto stores). Anyways, after getting back, Pam and Kate went to bed.
I hit up the wired and met some girl who was wearing an EVIL t-shirt from narbonic, which was awesome. I also met a guy from Alaska who did a bunch of AMVs for the con, and got involved in a big discussion with people about anime. I finally went to "bed" around 4am, "bed" being Kat's car which she was nice enough to let me sleep in.

Day 2

Around 8:45am I woke up and went to Kat's room to shower. After getting cleaned up, Kat, Kelcey, and I hit the art gallery and the dealers room for awhile, then came back to the Info Booth so I could work. Ryan came in to check out the con and hang out, which was cool, so after I got off my shift he, Pam, Arren and I went to Spencers for dinner where we saw a bunch of the Voice Actors that were there for a panel signing some stuff for the Con.
Afterwards, I got some extra time off from my shift and hung out with Ryan. He, Pam, and I went to the Marriott bar for a while, then came back down to the Hilton and I showed Ryan around pointing out different anime characters and whatnot. Then we hit the Wired again before I came back to finish out my shift with Kat and Ben.
After our shift was over, Ryan, Pam, Kat, I'la and I hit up the Marriott bar to get prefunked for a party at 11. We caught up with Parker and Kelcey. Kat and Parker took off for the night, and I hung out at the Wired chatting with random people while everyone else went to the dance/rave thingie until about midnight, when we went to a room party.
It was a pretty good time, Jerry (Tycho) was there, and everyone was having a great time either inside playing Wario Ware, or outside smoking and chatting. Ryan took off around 1:30, Kelcey (my ride if I wanted to go home) and Pam left around 2:30, and I stuck around and hung out at the party until about 4:00am when they decided to wind things down.
I started to look for something to do (since I didn't have my own room, and I didn't want to infringe on my friends), and of all things I found Hector and a couple of his friends. I wound up hanging out with them until 7:45am when Pam showed up.

Day 3

Pam and I hung out with Hector and Tracey (from Portland) until about 8:30am. They took off so Pam and I ran over to 7-11 to get some food (and caffeine for me) which we ate in the Hilton Lobby.
We were both scheduled to work at the Info Booth at 1:00pm, so we took advantage of our staff badges and checked out the dealer room at 9:30 before the rest of the con was allowed to go in. I bought a Rez Trance Vibrator, got a free poster, and bought a rad Last Exile card holder. Pam got a poster signed by Fred Gallagher (Piro), then we both headed up to Pam's room where I took a shower and got cleaned up.
We helped Jon get his stuff loaded into his car so they could check out, then went to work at the Info Booth. The Con closes around 3:30 on Sunday, so I helped out with moving boxes and closing up the Info Booth until about 4:00pm. Afterwards Jon invited us to a post-con get together, so I invited Kat and Kelcey to come down and join us, then headed to the Marriott bar (no I didn't drink) to have some 'me' time and relax a little. I was ready to pass out after an hour or so of reading The Two Towers, so I came back down, and met everyone at the Assault and Flattery Forum (where people suggest changes and praise the con with the executive staff). The forum ended with Nominations for executive positions for next year's con. I got nominated for Executive Secretary and quietly deferred my nomination until I could get more info, but I was honored to be nominated, and I look forward to doing it.
After the nomination ceremony, everybody finished up with their respective last minute things, then Pam, I'la, Kelcey and I went home to wait for Jon, Squeek and the rest for a post-con celebration. After everyone took a shower and calmed down, we wound up waiting for Jon, eventually just heading towards his house. He called to let us know that he'd be late, so we went to Shari's for some food.
Afterwards we went back to Jon's only to find out that they had decided to stay another night. Pam and I were tired (I was extremely tired), so it was kind of a relief. Kelcey and I took Pam home, and headed back to our house, where we promptly passed out. Thus my weekend at SakuraCon ended.

Movies: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2004-03-28 10:00:58

By: Anotherfluke

I actually saw this a couple of days ago, and it is an awesome movie. Like many sundance films (and all Focus Entertainment films, it seems), this one is kind of a watch-once-but-really-enjoy kind of film.

The basic theme is love conquers all, even the lovers. wrapped around this theme is an excellent idea of people having their unwanted memories erased. The movie spends half the time exploring the possibilities of such a device from the point of view of someone's dreams while the procedure is being done. it takes rather intangible concepts and makes them tangible, leading to touching, and often funny moments throughout the film. It really helps that the two main characters feel very real, and it's possible to identify with both of them, especially when you hear the tapes of them explaining their reasons for breaking up.

In all, it is an excellent movie, one I highly reccomend, if you've enjoyed Focus Entertainment's other films. You know, a friend of mine once said that the secret to finding good new music is to find a good label and listen to the stuff that they sign. It seems that this is starting to be true of film studios as well. I guess the proliferation of studios-within-a-studio like Fox Searchlight and Sony Pictures Classics is evidence of that.

New Photo Series: Seattle

2004-03-11 13:12:27

By: Anotherfluke

There is a new photo series available called the Seattle series. in my previous post I walked from my house in wedgewood to the waterfront in downtown seattle, bemoaning my inability to take pictures. Well yesterday was an equally beautiful day, so I decided to do the same thing, this time with camera in hand. The results are in the photo gallery to the left of this post.

In the interest of Fairness...

2004-03-02 20:06:27

By: Anotherfluke

Go ahead. Fill in the blanks. Use the Comment option to do it. It's fun! Really.

I ____ Nate.
Nate is ____.
If I were alone in a room with Nate, I would _______.
I think Nate should _____.
Nate needs ______.
Jon needs ______.
I want to ____________ Nate.
Nate reminds me of _______.
Without Nate _______.
My memories of Nate are ________.
Nate can be __________.
The Worst thing about Nate is _________.
The Best thing about Nate is _________.

If you can't see the Comment option, it's because you're not signed in. If you don't have a username, email me, and I'll send you one.

Valentine's day party

2004-02-15 16:39:29

By: Anotherfluke

As everyone's already said, the valentine's day party was a lot of fun, despite the people yelling in the streets and the naked people in the bathroom downstairs. It was kind of like a high school party where everyone was the weird old guy.

It was good seeing a lot of the same people there again this time. The first time I went to Stephen's house I didn't know anybody, and wound up sitting around talking to random people. By last night, people were coming up to me and chatting me up. I guess that's how it works, ne? Been awhile since I've been social so my skills are rusty as hell, but I had fun.

The most exciting part of the evening was going home. Since I took the bus to the party, I had to wait until 6am before the bus I needed started running again. It took me downtown where I caught the 72 home. I almost slept past my stop. After some drunken preparations (eating and drinking and taking advil), I finally went to bed at 9:30 this morning.

It's nice being able to set your alarm clock for 3:30 in the afternoon ^_^

Rambling and blah

2004-02-14 03:21:06

By: Anotherfluke

It's been a couple of days, so here's the lowdown:

My room is clean! Yes, I know, it's amazing. Here it is before:

and here it is after:

I'm sure some of you have seen it already, but dammit I went through the effort to make the pictures, so nyah.

Aside from my room, I also got lots of other chores taken care of, so much so that I'm now bored with all this extra time instead of anxious. It's almost surreal; I think it has been so long since I've been caught up with things, that I've almost forgotten how to just lay back and relax.

That may sound weird to some of you who only see the drinking, boisterous (some might say obnoxious) side of me, but the truth is I always have concerns hanging over my head, no matter what I say. Only now are some of those weights lifting off my shoulders, so if I seem a little more quiet, it may be that I am simply a little more content.

Which isn't to say that all my worries are gone. The rest are not for quite so public a discussion...

Sakura Con meeting

2004-02-08 15:55:08

By: Anotherfluke

I got back from Portland last night. There was a general meeting of staff for SakuraCon in Tigard, and we spent the day getting updates on the status of the various departments, and voting on issues for the con.

I'll be volunteering at the Info Booth during the con, and before hand I'll be working with the registration people to try and automate some of their badge making processes, which would reduce the amount of labor involved.

Anime Ghost is down *UPDATE* It's back up

2004-01-21 15:59:02

By: Anotherfluke

I don't know how long it's been down, but www.animeghost.net is currently down. Hopefully it'll be back up again soon. *EDIT* It's back up again. Check it out for party pics.

Movies: Triplets of Belleville

2004-01-10 23:34:37

By: Anotherfluke

Just got back from seeing this at The Egyptian. For those who don't know, The Triplets of Belleville is a unique animated french film that follows a grandmother's adventure to the town of Belleville to save her son after he was kidnapped during the tour de france. Here's the site.

Anyways, if you've seen any European animation, you know what kind of character portraits and charicatures you will come across, emphasizing facial features and body weight to get the point across. This film is is very pretty, and the stylized look feels very old and warm.

The actual story uses almost no words; in fact, although this is a french film, nary a subtitle is seen as the narrative is pushed forward at a leisurely pace. Even the car chase is run at a leisurely place. In all, I really enjoyed the film. The absurdity level of the charicatures is matched by the comic touches the film has, and it never ever takes itself too seriously, so relax. It is refreshingly mild film that doesn't feel neutered, a fine departure from a world of anti-heroes and bitterness.

Before the show starts (at The Egyptian, anyways), an unfinished collaboration between Salvadore Dali and Walt Disney is shown. Visually interesting, and brought into the 21 century with CG, it is an interesting watch. It moves the recesses of your mind while conciously you sit befuddled. Also, what's up with the Ants coming out of people's hands? I just don't get it.