I don’t know whether or not I should be surprised that this little computer of mine has already been obsoleted after owning it for just two years. Searching for new, up-to-date models within the price range of my current box shows new models with Intel Core 2 Duo Processors, 3-4 GB of RAM, and 600GB of hard disk space (that’s 5 times the space that I have now). I’m not entirely sure why people spend thousands of dollars on parts to tweak their computers every year when new and much improved models are already sold out the box for a fraction of that price.

Running Vista can’t be that damn demanding, now can it?

I’ve gotten back into the groove on MLB Power Pros 2008, and finally pulled a character out of the minors into the major leagues. The mode’s a lot easier to go through once you’ve played through the AA year and built up your attributes somewhat. I believe I had two consecutive three-hit games, and that helped the scouts see me as good enough to play for the majors in six months. In hindsight, I probably should have placed him in a position other than shortstop, because now he’s going to have to compete with Jimmy Rollins for a spot on the starting roster. I’d probably have had better luck putting him in as a catcher.

In other news, I’d love to be able to chime in with the praise-singing of Bionic Commando Rearmed, except I still can’t get past the first level. Granted, the game looks awesome, but chugs terribly on my computer. I’m grateful the damn thing runs at all. Guess it’s time for another memory/RAM upgrade, huh?

Now I’ve gone and done it…a nerd writing fiction about fictional nerds acting out fiction. Man, that’s a mouthful. I should just go ahead and give up any hope of ever sitting at the “big kids” table ever again.

I went ahead and posted it on LiveJournal, because Genshiken’s presence is completely non-existent on FanFiction.net. It’s doubtful the boys would ever get hardcore yaoi fangirl Kanako Ohno to read about yuri, but in a club where everybody fools around with video games, anime, and manga, it’s inevitable that all of their bases have to be covered (and are belong to us). That’s when I got an idea to have Saki (whose boyfriend is a member of the club and a big video game fanatic) and Ohno act out a scene from a manga left behind by the boys, as shown in this double drabble I call “Act the Fool“.

I wonder if I should have spent my vacation time working on fanfic instead of my regular story. I tcertainly would have made the days go faster. Unfortunately, I needed to go to the Internet to get my creative juices flowing, and the nearest Wi-Fi access point was in the motel across the street from the one where I stayed the last few days. Instead, I got around it by bringing along one of my notebooks and writing about 500 words a day to round out the first chapter, a portion of which I had written earlier. (PROTIP: college-ruled paper is a good way to fit a lot of words on your page, but not so much if you want to proofread it later.)

*ahem* Now, then…on with the story.

For those who missed it, here’s the prologue.

And once you’re done there, you can jump ahead to Chapter 1: Aspirations.

Twenty-four hours from now, I’ll be off on my annual family vacation to Wildwood, N.J. But before I go, a parting gift in fanfiction form:

Thundara (Final Fantasy IV, Cecil/Rosa)

Enjoy!

As a small move toward keeping my web space clean, I’ve removed all of the HTML pages that housed my old fanfics and episode reviews. I’ve already moved the stories onto the blog proper under the “Fiction” section, and the episode recaps are currently being saved for a secret project of mine.

On another note, I’ll be away in Wildwood, NJ, between Sunday, August 10, and Wednesday, August 13, so the only updates I’ll be able to give for that time period will be through Twitter. IF you’ve got an account, make sure to follow me at http://twitter.com/WillyFourEyes for the latest.

Server work’s been going on FFXI today, so I got in as much time as I could on Sunday, and finally got Kaeli up to level 8 after traveling by myself through Dangruf Wadi. With new offensive spells (and a shiny new weapon), I can actually hold my own in one-on-one combat. I kept dying and having to go back because apparently “even match” when it comes to a Level 7 White Mage means “run away fast”. Eventually, I’ll have to go and find myself a party once I hit level 10, because I’m told the missions get harder after that. Constantly losing 10% of my EXP due to carelessness is not going to help my ascent, and I really want to check out the expansion pack content that I paid (nothing) for. Heh heh heh…

I still have no idea how to properly take screenshots in Final Fantasy XI, so I can’t really share what’s going on in my little world (you’ll just have to take my word for it when I finally reached level 6 and completed my first mission with Kaeli). One of these days, I’m sure I’ll get something, but for now, I’ll direct you to another Mega Man Star Force fic I wrote, entitled Star Light, Star Bright.

After spending the longest time I’ve ever spent on installing a video game, I finally got around to playing Final Fantasy XI for the first time. As a “puny Earthling”, I’m biased toward creating/recruiting human characters in my video games, so I made two different “Humes” - one a White Mage named Kaeli (Siren server), and another a Warrior named Reuben (Hades server). I wanted to start out with a Thief named Tristam, but that name and all variations on it were taken on the server where I wanted to use him. In case it wasn’t apparent, I named them both after characters from the oft-ridiculed SNES RPG Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, because I though it would be the least likely game from where people would steal names.

I spent my first half-hour of the game wandering around blindly because I didn’t bother to read the instruction manual before playing. FFXI’s mouse movement system is weird - first, you have to click and hold your mouse somewhere on the screen. The closer to the middle of the screen you are, the better, because your character tends to swing around wildly when you put the cursor anywhere else (but unlike holding down on the mouse wheel button, there’s no indicator of where your center is). A little while later, when searching for the menu button, I found out that the number pad works just as well.

Why I decided to make one of my beginner characters a White Mage instead of a Black Mage, I’ll never know. Healing types are notoriously hard to solo, which is something I should have learned the hard way from playing Guild Wars with my starting class as a Monk and dying several times over. If I can make Kaeli powerful enough, I’ll swap out her White Mage-ness to make her a Beastmaster so that she can use axes, with White Mage as her sub-job.

If that doesn’t work out, I’ll probably play as Reuben, and team up with one of my buddies who’s been playing the game for a few years now, and knows the area better than me.

In the time it took me to install Final Fantasy XI and three of its expansion packs (Rise of Zilart, Chains of Promathia, and Treasures of Aht Urhgan), I was able to watch three whole episodes of Gunslinger Girl. Computer games should not take this damn long to install!