John Zeitler

My name is John, and… I’m addicted to explosions.

It started off simple… I was playing as the Orks and getting a few kills here and there, but other people were able to throw lots of wounds at me, and I wasn’t able to save against them. It always starts that way– the first few shells of ordnance are always free. If I’d only known what it would lead to…

Now it seems like I can’t even take my movement phase at the beginning of the turn without wanting a sweet, sweet, awesome explosion to happen instead. I’ll sit there as the Imperial Guard for the entire game, not moving, just raining fire down on everyone around me, simply blowing %$#% up for the hell of it. My entire tactical manual is a book on tape, and it’s just ten hours straight of maniacal laughter punctuated by thunderous KABOOMs.

I’m so glad I have a place where I can go to… wait, what the hell am I saying?! Explosions fix everything! Screw rehab, I’ma go get me more tanks!

One of the projects I’m working on currently– the not-quite-so-but-still-kinda-”Super Secret” one– has me discussing with friends some rather… risky topics. I suppose it should go without saying that when I talk about, say, how to break into a store and clean out the register without leaving a trace behind, I’m only speaking hypothetically. Anyone who knows me, knows this; that I wouldn’t ever consider such a course of action in reality. Funny thing is, though, sitting at my computer on Skype and discussing this topic with friends, alone, in my basement apartment, I kinda felt like maybe I should have at least said “hi” to whoever was listening in on our silly inane discussion.

Then again, I’m reminded of a witticism that’s all too true: “Paranoia is a comforting thing. It means you think someone else thinks you’re important.”

The CEO of television dubbing studio Bang-Zoom Entertainment, Eric Sherman, posted a strongly worded article on Tuesday claiming that, solely due to the download of fan-subtitled anime, the studio would likely shut down within twelve months. His reasoning is that the existence of a free source for an anime not legally available in North America intrinsically and irrevocably cuts into the profits of a dubbing studio such as his. Mr. Sherman goes on to say that “anime is going to die”.

( There’s more than a few holes in his argument… » )

At 7:33p, I defeated Seth, final boss of Super Street Fighter IV for the Xbox 360 (Normal difficulty). This is the ninth game cleared in 2010. Forty-one games remain to be cleared for the 50/2010 challenge.

Today’s news came to me a little early. I have some remarks about the… uh, remarks that Bang Zoom CEO Eric Sherman made regarding the state of the NA anime industry. Naturally, I’m a little tired now and can’t finish them in anything resembling coherency. Tomorrow. Probably.

Completely unrelated: You want to download the Split/Second demo. RIGHT NOW. I MEAN IT.

That’s totally a word now, by the way. It’s derived from the root word “aesthetics”, meaning “a pleasing form or sensation”, and the prefix “hypo”, meaning “reduced or below what is required”. Its plain-English definition is “John wasted the entire evening dealing with stupid %$#@ that he had, until four hours ago, been under the impression had been resolved in 2007“.

As a little FYI, I did manage to get through the E4 last night and earned Ribbon #4… but, the game can’t be called Cleared until I’ve seen the second ending. Slight setback, nothing to worry about, really. Rather than be anything approaching productive today, however, I decided it might be a better use of my time to just relax and do a few little things. I hit the grocery store, did some cooking for the week’s lunches, and progressed a little bit more in a game or two. Overall, this has just been a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and well appreciated before the coming week. I hope yours has been just as good.

At the time that I write this, I’m about four to six levels away from being ready to challenge the Elite Four in Pokemon SoulSilver. At the same time, the Pittsburgh Penguins are two goals behind the Ottawa Senators in a rather decisive playoff Game 6. They have but one period left in their game, but I could go for a couple more hours, really…

I didn’t mention this at the time, but while at Tekkoshocon, I happened upon a flyer for Winter Melody, a webcomic that seems to be in its infancy. Even with so few pages up already and a little bit of background information on the characters, I think it’s shaping up to be a really interesting story– or at the least it’s cute enough that I can overlook its somewhat moderate pacing. (Incidentally it seems to have started off as a 4-koma, a format that just doesn’t get enough English-language attention.)

You’ll notice I kept saying “seems” up there, and while I’ll be the first to admit it’s the verbal tic that’s replacing “actually” in my overused-phrase bin, there’s a damn good reason for it this time: I have no idea who is doing Winter Melody. There’s no credits on the page, no names, nothing… just the webcomic. Not even any ads! Since I’m a stickler for credit, sadly that means I can’t yet put it on my main links page, but it’s at least in my bookmarks toolbar for the time being.

It’s weird to think that I’m practically opening myself up for identity theft compared to the talent behind that series.

Sorry, but that Game Clear notice is about all you’re getting from me tonight in terms of content. Kinda tired, but hopefully tomorrow I’ll have something substantial, if for no reason other than to keep this week’s content-to-days ratio over 50%.