John Zeitler

Some folks with 360s probably already know this, but Microsoft’s first game for their Xbox Live Primetime service is 1 vs. 100. I enjoy it, though I’ve yet to participate in a “live” game. Tonight, while playing the no-live-presenter version of the game, something quite interesting happened with the questions that were presented. I played two rounds, over the course of an hour. Each round was about 37 questions or so. Several questions were bits and pieces of video game trivia, such as “Which band had a video game in the 80s: Journey, U2, or Kajagoogoo?” But of those game-related questions, fully four of them directly related to Nintendo properties like Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda.

This is going to fuel speculation, I’m sure. And by speculation I mean “rabid incoherent fanbrat whining”.

Something tells me that maybe I need to either drop the difficulty down in Street Fighter IV, or get better much faster… at “Medium” I get stopped cold on the third fight, regardless of who it is. Then again maybe I have no business playing a fighting game in the first place… but damn if it isn’t one of the better-looking ones I’ve played. The 3-D models are far better looking than I expected, and honestly the game mechanics weren’t twiddled around with too much. On the fight-pad (which I bought initially for Pop’n, and later for SF2 HD and MvC2), the controls are just about perfect.

I’ll probably drop down a level just for the time being… maybe. I do need to work more on getting the Shoryuken motion down.

Well, folks… this is it, today starts the D&D campaign. Wish me luck.

There’s always a feeling of deep satisfaction when, after being stuck for a long time on a particular game level, you finally clear it. In this instance, it was stage 3-3 of Mighty Flip Champs, but I’ve had that rush many many times before: Wiegraf from Final Fantasy Tactics, Paranoia in DDR, the first Strider encounter in Half Life 2… the list goes on. So what bosses or levels always gave you folks trouble, and what did you do to celebrate once you got past them?

Really, it’s been another very quiet set of days, folks. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t even been able to sit down long enough to do any gaming… which is a shame, as I really wanted to keep going with SRT: OG2 before I forgot where I was in it. Ah well, tomorrow’s a busy night– I have to sit down and finalize the D&D campaign for Saturday after incorporating some of the feedback I got from Pez and Adam last weekend, preferably before the hockey game starts… and then Sunday will be filled with laundry, grocery shopping, and cooking up a batch of seafood curry. That last bit I’m very excited about, as quite frankly it never occurred to me that combining two things I love that way would work, so it’s an interesting experiment.

Anyway. Later, folks.

I can understand why I would need to re-load software after a system restore. This is a perfectly normal activity, part and parcel with having your machine cleaned out and reset to the zero point. That’s fine with me. What I don’t much care for is when programs that allow you to have multiple profiles don’t carry over common-sense settings between the different profiles– for example, Eclipse… It’s a great tool, don’t get me wrong, but for juggling projects, I’ve always had separate workspaces, and when I have to re-setup dozens of settings that should be standard in the first place– not to mention that I have likely forgotten that those things were not as they should be from the start– I tend to get frustrated, with a capital “I want to take a broadsword to the bloody machine”.

Second to this is, when I try to get someone to help me, they take one look at the trackball and freak out.

Folks, I don’t advertise too much on my site, particularly not for A Civics Lesson. Granted, that may be why it’s garnered almost no attention whatsoever, but I think there’s another reason: it’s really hard to get caught up. Fortunately, I’ve managed to change that aspect.

You can now read each chapter in linear order as they are completed.. I recommend spending the next couple of days getting caught up through to the end of Chapter Five (it’s a doozy); Chapter Six will be done in a week or so, so you can catch it there then (or start here, now with the “next segment” tag), and from there I really recommend using the RSS Feed to stay current.

I’d also appreciate it if you folks could spread the word about the book again. Thanks.

Another short entry, but to the point. Watching through Code Geass, I’m struck with only one thought as the proceedings are before me– even though I like the series greatly (it made a better impression on me this time than when I first saw it last year at Otakon):

Lelouch Lamperouge has such rotten luck because somebody has to balance out Yuuno Scrya’s amazingly good luck.

I’ve been… less than useful of late, particularly as my sleeping has been repeatedly knocked out of whack by circumstances. I’m trying to correct this. However, it should probably be noted that one of the reasons my sleep has been truncated was waiting for 1 vs. 100 Live to start up; last week it was a bust because of the completely unannounced attendance cap. Long story short, there was an Extended Play (ie not live) show running tonight, I was one of about 80,000 people playing, and I’m hooked. More to the point, Extended Play sessions are going to be run all week in advance of reasonable live sessions next weekend. Which honestly makes me very happy.

Good night, everyone.

It’s come to my attention that this is the 25th anniversary of the development of Tetris. This of course does not surprise me, given that the human race collectively has probably sunk well over a century or more of time playing the game in any of its various forms. On the outside I’d guess I’m guilty for a week or two of that. Still, be glad that it never gets as bad as this: