Black Friday: Shopping, True Blood, No Sleep

It has been an insane past three days. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

Thursday:
Slept at 6am the night before, trying to convert True Blood to PSP format as I almost forgot to do it. Woke up at 10am that morning to have some decent breakfast at Angel before arriving at the pick-up site at 11:15am. When we arrived, we can already tell this tour was going to be full of the usual prissy old women, just like it is every year. Our bus arrives 15mins late and to our surprise, our tour guide and driver are the same two guys from LAST YEAR.

We got on, then went off to other locations to pick up more people, crossed the border at 12ish. People already started crazy shopping at the duty free. Made some stops on the way and arrived in practically dead downtown Portland at around 6pm. We once again had Todai, the expensive but insanely good all you can eat everything restaurant. The crepes were so disgustingly good that I had frickin' two! After feeling full, satisfied and gross, we headed back to our hotel where we rested until 11pm.

Friday:
12AM We were then sent off to Woodburn where the midnight madness was supposed to begin, however at Woodburn, the midnight madness was actually named the MOONLIGHT madness when they actually start an hour earlier -- 11PM! We were all handed a eco-friendly bag filled with some stuffers (a bottled water, a chocolate candy, a granola bar, coupon book) and then we were on our merry way.

Our first stop was Ecko as it was right in front of us from where we were dropped off. I picked up some shirts and was about to get a hoodie as well but the last one of my size had a giant hole in it so I didn't. On the other hand, my brother went insane in this store... a bit too insane perhaps. After leaving the store with two giant, heavy bags, we went off to find the parents which were joining the crazy crowd in Fossil. My mom got some rather expensive jewelry in there (hm, not watches this year it seems) and I ended up getting some expensive earrings myself. We went through a bunch of other places but the only other store I went crazy in was Aeropostale... Tommy Hilfiger apparel has disappointed me this year. The designs this season felt boring, and extremely reused. I was looking forward to perhaps renew my love for it but it was a total disappointment. By around 4:30am, we finished walking the whole mall and decided to rest at a hot dog selling restaurant owned by Koreans? by supporting them by buying a hot dog from them, then chilling until 5:30am which was the pickup time. The driver guy ends up arriving at 6. I prompted to ask the tour guide lady "So you guys are rather late." and she just answers with "yeah" well that was actually a cue for you to redeem yourself woman! But whatever, I was mainly furious because our next stop was Fry's and the place actually opened at 5am.

Fry's Fry's Fry's... When we arrived at 6 and got inside, we saw the massively frightening snake line that formed right to the entrance area (we didn't even have to go in much deeper to see it). Our time limit there was only 1 hour, so there was no bloody way we could've gotten out within that time, even if people were to start lining up right then. We were already digging up goodies but had to drop them because we knew it was impossible. So we left and headed back to our hotels. We almost had no plan on returning to Fry's because apparently 95% of the people on the bus did not want to go. The 5% was just our family of four (sadly) plus this one older geezer too but he ended up chickening out so he doesn't count anymore.

It was 7am and we made it back to eat the complementary breakfast. Then people went to rest/sleep/etc. I showered and then decided to kept myself awake instead. I hung outside in the lobby the whole time, surfing the free internet and then watching True Blood on my PSP. At some point there were a pack of boys who were on the computers playing Runescape for the longest time. That game seems to be thriving quite well still it seems. 10:30 rolls around, woke up the family, and then headed out at 11 to Portland downtown's Pioneer Place aka. Saks aka. Fifth Ave. For some reason the actual Forever 21 store did not glamour me as much as the online store itself. We also stopped by Ross where we loaded up on even more clothing. We dinnered in the food court, sat around aimlessly for about 1 1/2 hours before the pickup time.

We headed to Washington Square after picking us up at 5:30 where the 95% of the people were dropped off. The four of us were VIP driven to Fry's were we wanted to load up on electric material but unforunately for me, I ended up leaving with only an awesomely wireless cheap mouse and keyboard. On the other hand, my brother found a number of price dropped games, in which he snatched up immediately. My dad also refrained from buying a pack of 100 AA-batteries for 20$. He regretted it the next day.

We were done well before 8, so we gave the driver and tour leader a call (they went off to eat dinner) and they came and drove us back to Washington Square. We headed inside and went straight to the stores we had our eye on. I went to MetroPark to find out that they no longer sold Toki Doki apparel, and that was extremely upsetting. I did a bit of shopping at Victoria's Secret and also passed by an EBX and grabbed Left 4 Dead PC. We grabbed ourselves an orange julius, did some more last minute shopping at Macy's and hopped on back into the bus for our ride home (hotel).

It was nearly 9:30 at the time when we arrived and Best Buy closed at 10. We knew there was one right next door so me and my brother dropped all our stuff at the hotel room and ran our way there. We ended up making it 10 or less minutes before closing. The crazy blu-ray disc sale was swept clean, but my brother managed to find something else instead. The place stayed open well after closing as there were still plenty of other last minute shoppers.

Saturday:
The morning was brutal for me, having to wake up at 7 and out by 8. We had our complementary breakfasts and then loaded up the bus with our stuff. We began heading back north and took at stop at Westlake Center. We were only allowed to stay there for a bit over an hour so it was a bit of a shame. There was an Olive Garden across the parking lot, but eating there would take up the whole time, so we decided on food court food plus some mall wandering.

After the short break, we were on our way again... our last stop being Seattle Premium Outlet. We got there around 1, and we had until 3:30 to do our thing. Me and my bro split off from our parents to get to the places we wanted to faster). Our first stop was Lucky Jeans to get some mmm comfy pants. Unfortunately for me, the wash I wanted was not available in my size (both waist and length) so I didn't get anything. However, once again, my brother got what he wanted. We forgot to bring our passports when we paid by card, but luckily they accepted my Canadian drivers license :b... The only other store we needed to visit was Ecko. I was determined to find that hoodie that I wanted at Woodburn but the only one in my size there had a giant hole in it :(. Luckily, with a bit of digging, my hoodie was found! After that, we were done! The next challenge was to find our parents. It didn't help that my mom doesn't pick up her phone when you need her most.

We wandered the whole mall until we caught her lining up for the Coach store. I joined in on the line up to ensure that she comes out alive in that chaos. After that store, I think it was safe to say that we were officially done. We got back on the bus soon after for our ride back to Vancouver. As expected, the lineup was already horrible, even on the Saturday. We took a quick stop at the duty free, picked up some stuff up to our limit (liquor cough) and then went through. Only one person had to get off to pay customs fee at the border cuz she wrote quite a bit on there.

Throughout the whole trip, I read through a volume of Shugo Chara, and watched all of True Blood. I got a bit paranoid watching that on the trip, especially during the sex scenes.. which happened rather frequently lol.

Overall, the trip was satisfying. It was a break from reality, but it wasn't exactly stress free either. The staying up overnight with no sleep was a bit tiring but worth it, and I don't mind doing it again actually. Though the parents feel otherwise.

Preparing for Black Friday

It's that time of the year again when we do a little crazy shopping when it's not even our country's holiday. We'll be heading down tomorrow morning and will be returning Saturday night. Seeing I was going to miss a day of class (especially on a day the major final project is due), I had to work my ass off the day before to get everything done and handed in. When I got home from school and had lunch, I started working around 2pm, took a break at 7 for dinner, started again at 10 and worked until 3am ish. After that, I just slacked and stayed up just because. The whole load off the chest was a wonderful feeling today though. I only had to rush around to exchange more US$ and pick up our HK tickets, followed by a rather boring PDF-training class, in which as usual I wasn't listening.

My usual manga loot also arrived in the mail today meaning I'll have ample entertainment for the ride down. I've also prepared the rest of the season of True Blood which I'll be glad to catch up on considering everyone else has finished it already.

On a short note on gaming, I finished Gears 2 the other day with my brother. The Hammer of Dawn is amusing. I'm still contemplating on getting gold though. I would imagine online will be insane.

Now that I don't have to worry about school until at least Sunday, I'm going to treat myself to some gaming tonight.

Playstation HOME beta

So I woke up at 3pm today thinking I might get around to some cleaning around the house perhaps before ramen dinner downtown. I went downstairs to prepare myself for some food making and turned on the laptop as usual.

I first get a msg from my bro telling me he just sent me beta keys for HOME beta which he got into. I figured HOME might take a while to download so I popped it in promptly to download. When it was done, I thought I'd take a quick look at how it was and how it fared against the other consoles. I ended up a bit frustrated with how the facial features were customized but at the end I managed to create someone decent. As I followed the tutorial, the last part sent you straight into the virtual world lobby. Of course, as soon as one enters, one must explore! And thus that's what I did.

I ended up exploring, type chatting and messing around almost till 6, messing up my plans to plan my way downtown (and getting ready in general e.g. change into proper outside clothing instead of pj's). Getting downtown takes more than 30-45 mins via bus and especially as I didn't know where that ramen place was located I would need to allocate more time for myself. The original meeting time was 6-6:30 so it was given I wouldn't be able to make it. By then, I gave up on going and ended up bumming around on HOME for the rest of the night.

The rest of the e-mail that came with the beta code mentioned as "celebration" happening from 6-8pm pst so everyone started gathering. We end up getting stood up and I was only able to stop "playing" HOME when the servers went down at 9pm. In retrospect, that's a lot of hours in a VIRTUAL WORLD (NOT a game), and I can't believe I actually did that. I have yet to try the virtual bowling but I did get a few games at the pool table which was amusing to say the least.

So to sum it up, I didn't eat anything today... I ended up finishing this strange logan drink I picked up at T&T the day before, if that counts as food? I really looked forward to eating ramen, if it wasn't for my other friends who backed out on it thus I didn't have a companion to go with, thus not keeping me in check, thus making me not care about the time, thus missing it completely. I am not too fond of traveling downtown alone, but if I were to go, I'd have to prepare myself (mentally, physically, everything) just because the area's still so foreign to me (wut, but you're born in vancouver wtf! - yeah yeah). I haven't eaten at that place before either which made me want to go even more. But man.. I'm hungry though it's too late to eat now.

Also, later that night I also started playing Gears of War 2 campaign co-op with my bro. Pretty fun stuff I must say.

Dead Space

So Dead Space isn't as scary as I thought (hm, I've been assuming too many games are scary without actually trying it as of late huh) though it's still not a game I'd play. However, I've been watching my brother play it instead and it's actually a bit frustrating watching him. He seriously fails in console FPS. He's playing in easy mode too and he can't aim for shit.

('cuse my language.)

He's a trophy whore too so he's going to have fun playing in hard mode. Hahaha.

Dear PS3 Backwards Compatibility

So I got home today from school and totally felt like playing a console RPG. Magna Carta's out of the question. I have no plans on touching that for another half a year at least (trying to keep the game as far away as possible). I stared at the 360 and the options I had. I considered Vesperia, but I wanted to get to Legendia first (I have a thing for chronology). Infinite, Lost Odessey - at the very end of that backlog list. PS3 doesn't have that many choices to begin with. Disgaea 3 but I haven't even played the first one. Then I suddenly thought of Wild ARMs XF which I plan on getting to after Suikoden II, Saga Frontier II, possibly Persona 2, but before getting to that game is Wild ARMs 5. Thus I found a winnar!

I put the game in to the PS3 and waited for the intro. NO ANIME OPENING. Right, I saw that coming. But there wasn't even much of an opening to begin with actually. Plus the intro song felt like they stole the first few notes from Chrono Cross which annoys me to no end. Anyway, throughout the first "hour" of the game, I ran into about three game freezes and got fed up. I did a quick search in the backwards capability database (oops, I should've done that beforehand) to find that it was not perfectly compatible with the PS3. D'oh. Luckily my PS2 was still sitting here, wrapped up and collecting dust so I cleaned it up and plugged it in instead.

The PS3 improved the graphics quite a bit so it was a shame I had to downgrade. Either way, it's nice to play a console RPG again. It felt like it's been a while since. The last few RPGs were played on the PSP so staring at a big screen (however not fitting to the widescreen) was refreshing. Hm, come to think of it, I could've played remotely too...

While on the topic of gaming... I tried Left 4 Dead just to see what the bloody hype was and well... since I played offline by myself, I didn't really see the same hype as everyone else. The look's rather unrealistic (after watching Killzone 2 videos, this looks pretty weak :x) so it's not as scary as I originally thought. Also seems like most of my friends will be playing on PC but dude, I'm getting the 360 version for like 20 bucks. 'Cept I'd have to subscribe to XBL if I wanted to play online. Bah, dunno what I'm going to do yet but I'll see. Maybe I'll find the PC version for cheap during Black Friday (which I doubt considering it's brand new but you never know).

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - Purify Completion!

Valkyrie Profile completion 3am ish. Verdict: Get thee hence!

Story 4.5/5
Alright so I enjoyed the story. It was a bit sappy which was completely unexpected... who would've thunk this game would have romance in it. There was an interesting twist to it which you realize a bit past half way through the game - whoa 'gods' aren't really what you think they are?!

I played to a certain point and aimed to get the 'A' Ending, which is the 'correct' ending per se, allowing you to see all the cutscenes and get the, ultimately, happy ending.

Even though I say the story's good... they're still quite a number of unanswered questions, mostly regarding the past. I would only assume it's answered in VP: Silmeria or VP: Hrist, if they ever make the latter one.

Gameplay 4/5
The gameplay is truly unique to this series. Your chosen 4 characters are each assigned to a button and in battle you can build up the combo meter to allow them to unleash a finishing move at the end of their turn. It was great of a feeling to have "unlimited mana!" as you were able to cast whatever you want (one spell) in your turn (when you can go) but mages often had long charge turns. So remedy this, you'd beat on your enemy like a punchbag to make them drop 'magic gems' which lessen charge turns. However, they don't always go straight your mage. So your solution would be to beat it even more and hopefully some of those go to the mage.

The period and chapter concept was something I was first afraid of. Oh gawd what if I went and wasted important time in a place I wasn't supposed to! The story turned out to be a lot more linear than I originally thought. I ended up having a lot of free time after going through most of the revealed places. That was my fault for picking the Normal mode instead of Difficult.

The difference would be the available dungeons, and available players you can recruit. I actually might just want to play it again in Difficult to grab all the other people. But essentially I went through the correct main story and got the good ending.

Characters 3.5/5
My favourite was definitely Lenneth and her story. The little Arngrim, Mystina, and Lezard bit was rather amusing and I've grown to like that trio. Now I'm just dying to know what the past life deal with all about. I need to dig up VP: Silmeria.

The other characters didn't particularly leave any crazy good impression. The fact that I took the 'A' ending, I didn't get the awesome Einjerhar I sent up back. I liked all the characters I sent up and if I was able to play with them for a longer period of time, perhaps I would've liked the rest of the cast more.

My final battle players were Lenneth, Aelia, Janus and Shiho. I hate Janus for his weak RDM (defense) and he was essentially the useless one by the end of the game. He hit things for 0. All the mages were all the same to me, so I just stuck with Shiho. Aelia was able to use one of the better weapons made from a broken spear, so I kept her instead of Arngrim.

Sound 4/5
Voices. Why is it always the voices that kind of ruin your experience sometimes? My favourite voice was Lenneth's for sure. And then... for the rest of the cast, it was Pokemon all over again! Brock was disguised as Lucian, Ash was disguised as Aelia, Misty was disguised as Jelanda, Jesse was disguised as Mystina -- they were EVERYWHERE! Some of the voices were so badly done.. it was a bit annoying, but you got used to them.

As for the actual sound, like say, the music - it was GREAT. The music Motoi makes for Valkyrie Profile is so different, I loved it! All the tracks were great up until the staff credits roll, which reminded me too much of Tales.

Graphics 3.5/5
Nothing much to complain about it nor was it anything particularly special. The extra 3D cutscenes were beautiful and it added a nice touch to it. Makes me wonder how the original anime cutscenes were like.

Overall 4/5
The music and the story really did it for me. The unexplained plot holes and nasty voice acting ruins it a bit but the overall aftertaste was good. It makes you want to know more of the story which S-E should work on instead of releasing that other Lenneth side story on DS.

And a side note, the Tri-Ace logo easter egg in the final CG cutscene was amusing, emerging from the ground.

Jello Night

So following this tradition-to-be (?), we had our second food-theme night (first one being takoyaki) at Mina's place. I woke up at 4pm that day (mmm~), played R2 until 6ish, got ready, and then got there a bit after 7. I bumped into Lester on my way up and only noticed the other attendee (minus the hostess) being Lisa. We were hungry so we ordered some delivery Go-Go Tea (minus the cosplayers) and had jello while we waited, watching a bit of Knocked Up on tv. Other people started to appear as time went by (Vee, Chris, Gillian, Jay, Tyrone) and tried other strange solidified liquids. The food comes, we then started watching True Blood off Shaw On Demand. I believe the rest of us has gotten addicted to this show. Vampires are hot, except when they're called Bill. Makes me wonder if that's the vampire show that had the Wii golf bit in it. I guess I'll find out eventually.

Remembrance Day - though the post is unrelated really

Day offs are great and I just woke up.

So Sunday I followed my parents out for their usual routine (food, shopping). At some point, we ended up at Richmond Zellers and I went to the gaming area as usual to see if there was anything that stood out. I spotted the 360 elite box with the label I've been waiting for all this time - BONUS Panda n Lego game inside! The label was a sticker and the game was stuck outside of the box, so it was slightly different from what I saw online. Either way, the price was also not right so I had them check it for me. The person I asked help me was actually a elementary/high school classmate who actually was a bit of a delinquent (which I accidentally said aloud to him when we were trying to remember each other "weren't you a delinquent.......(shit!)" lol) in school and dropped out before we graduated. He (John) didn't have his dyed blond hair and his "gangster" look so it took me a while to recognize him.

When I got home, the first thing I tried was the power plug - the issue I had with the previous one. Andd.... IT FIT. I went online and browsed around and wow, the prices for the XBLA games were kinda pricey for what they're really worth. SO I tried Hexic so far (since that was the only thing that was free) but it's nothing new since it's a bloody free game on MSN anyways. There weren't any games I want to play yet since I'm already working on two RPGs (PSP), an FPS (PS3) and a platformer (PS3).

I think I'll wait and try and buy some msn points for cheaper. I won't be subscribing either until I know there's games I'd want to go on and play on a regular basis. But for now.. maybe I'll just stick to demos.

Ooooh brain pain

6 hours of continuous Resistance 2 is too much for one's brain to handle. But damn it's addictive. I'll have to keep in mind for the future to take breaks in between to prevent giant migraines from reoccurring just like today.

Search Engines Nowadays

Teacher: "So what search engines are out there?"

Student A answers instantly, "Google."
After a short pause, student B asks, "Doesn't Yahoo have one?"

lol.

Has it been that long since Google has become the mainstream search engine?

Blog is finally up-to-date!

I can't believe I'm finally done tagging and publishing all my posts from Forevermore. I didn't realize how time consuming the whole process is too, especially having to read through all the posts to know what to tag it.

Reading through posts over a few years old were a bit amusing too. It's kinda interesting to see how I've grown and matured (lol orly? :b) and how bad of a student I was in school. Seriously. I did so much complaining. I was also a bad social blogger... I feel bad for all the people who used to read and follow my blog. I also updated my sites/domain a lot. Look at me now. I do nothing of the sort, harhar. I also used to play a lot of MJ. I kinda miss doing that.. sigh.

It's nice to know my posts at least seem a bit more meaningful than what I used to post. I seem to post as much as I used to too. I guess that doesn't change. :D