GraphRenderer promises to convert DVR-MS files directly to a format that I enjoy… Installing right now.
Good Eats, here we come!
Untitled
and still for good reason.
Guess who just spent over 20 minutes tearing his apartment apart in a quest to find his glasses? Sigh. They were wrapped up in a blanket on the foor at the foot of my bed. I WASN’T TAKING A NAP!
Oh, and it looks like my appointment for this afternoon just rescheduled, so I think I just might lose the glasses again and try to make up for last night’s 2 hour snoozefest of joy.
Oh, and I got invited into the EQ2 expansion beta. None of my chars are big enough to enjoy the full content, but there are apparently quite a few other things lying around that I will be able to play with.
Ok, so yesterday evening (while I was running around after having discovered that I couldn’t get in to my office) I picked up a few good anime on VHS from Bookmans and moseyed on down to their video game shelves.
Not much impressed me, but I did find a copy of Wild Arms 2. I figured that since I had already picked up the 3rd one earlier, I may as well complete the series. I’ve not yet played either of them – and have only seen the first few episodes of the anime, but I am liking what I saw and what people have had to say about it.
Thus, the search begins for a copy of the first Wild Arms game. Ebay says quite a few people have it for sale atm, and I decided to place a low bid with a guy in Florida who has 100% positive feedback… and who is offering $2 flat shipping cost regardless of how many of his games you win. So… I’ve got bids in on a few (13) of his other titles.
These would include: Azure Dreams, Dragon Warrior VII, Dragon Warrior Torneko, Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire IV, Beyond the Beyond, Legend of Mana, Vagrant Story, and Xenogears. I’m not horribly interested in a few of the games, but with $5 bids on them, I won’t complain if I win them.
I thought I saw Tactics Ogre on his list… and thought I had bid on it, but am not seeing it any more? Boggle. Ahh, heh. I just can’t read the site. Nevermind, that one’s on queue as well.
I want the first Lunar game (Silver Star Story), and it seems to be averaging between $50 and $80 on Ebay right now. I’ve placed a bid of $20 on a copy that has a few days to go, so I don’t expect I’ll be winning this one.
Anyhow, my list of target games also includes Grandia and Star Ocean 2. Gamestop lists Star Ocean at $18 and Grandia at $26 (even though they don’t have any copies available). Going rates on Ebay atm are a bit higher than that. I’ve placed bids with other sellers at $20 each on the games and will see what becomes of them.
I will wait until the results of this huge stack of bids goes through before I start actually seriously chasing after things… but I want ‘em bad! Hrm.
Just because I’m silly and don’t necessarily want to sleep and don’t particularly feel like playing video games or doing anything for work or for Clarissa’s site, etc… I am writing on here.
This post officially inaugurates a new category. Yay food! I like food. A lot. If I could have only one channel on the television, it would be Food TV. After that, it is a toss-up between SciFi, Cartoon Network, and Comedy Central… actually, probably in that order.
I should talk about food. Hrm… what do I eat? Well, mostly, I eat grains (lots of wheat and rice) and vegetables. I get most of my protein from fish or chicken and while I love beef and pork with much cuddly passion, I am trying vaguely to reduce my weekly intake. I generally avoid sweets and don’t eat very much in the way of fresh fruit.
I am a sucker for fruit juices and am particularly fond of citrus flavours to the point where I am probably a walking vitamin C tablet with an ulcer just waiting to happen. I probably drink way too much soda (not much in the way of caffiene, just lots of carbonated sugar water), because even though I like juice better, soda is usually cheaper and easier to get – most places only offer lemonade as a non-carbonated flavour and I have actually been cutting back on the citrus as a result of acid problems that started a few years back.
I like baked goods, especially dairy and fruit flavoured things. I like caramel. I don’t like chocolate. I like pie more than cake (much love for mince and pecan, not so much for pumpkin). I like bread of all shapes and varieties. I like bread that feels like real food – none of this sissy bleached enriched white glue-flavoured garbage that people feed their children. I like whole grains and crusty breads that could break a tooth if you aren’t careful.
At one point in time, I was something of a root beer connoisseur. I could distinguish between about 10 or 12 different flavours by smell alone. Alas, this skill has faded. I can still identify quite a few of them and am still rather picky when it comes to the subject. My favorite brand still remains IBC, and that probably won’t ever change unless something phenominally better comes along.
Ok, you know it’s bad when you can’t sleep because you’re thinking about a stupid video game. Specifically, a stupid video game that nobody else will play with you…
I’ve given a bit more thought to the whole EQ2 thing and am pretty certain that I want my dwarf to become a guardian. He’s halfway through the job upgrade quest, having hit lvl 9 this morning before my stomach rebelled on me.
Minor adventure:
Was simply grinding away at mobs in the forest ruins outside of Baubleshire (since my primary is a hobbit, alts just bum off of his house for storage when their vaults fill). At level 7, the dwarf could pretty much inflict a constant stream of death and carnage against mobs his size or smaller without stopping – because mini-dings are cool (every 10% of a level in EQ2, you’re healed to full).
Well, very nearly approaching the boundary for level 8, a rabbid aggro badger (elite, honor, whatever EQ calls them) spawned behind me and proceeded to chew me into pieces. Surprisingly, I almost survived. Debt was only 2%, so no biggie, I came back, tried again, and did much worse that time around because I wasn’t quite as prepared as I should have been.
Wander around for 10 minutes until I ding 8 and make my way back to find that nobody has killed the badger yet. Yar! Badger dies. Badger drops nice shield and Adept I book for lvl 12 Warrior skill. A sign? I think so. Fighter->Warrior->Guardian it is then 
Will probably have enough xp to ding 11 shortly after switching to guardian, and Al will probably be able to find himself a decent enough supply of friends. If not, he will still tank like a Buick, and I don’t mind Jeopau twinking him out a bit with some of his carpentry earnings if I need to squander some on happy armour…
Argh! Somebody play with me!
Once again, I hear the siren call of Everquest. Kind of. (2 of course, the original was completely unplayable)
Penny has shown a little interest in the game and has taken a wood elf priest through the newbie island but has yet to actually go through the apartment quests and all.
We were having minor issues with Tarma at the time – go figure, Athlon64 3200+ with an nVidia card (which SOE apparently swears by) having trouble keeping up with the lowly Athlon 1400 with its ATI card. Grin. Probably helps that Rincewind has about a gig and a half of ram and a better motherboard by miles – and of course that nVidia really isn’t worth the silicon its printed on
Either way, I’ve throttled the graphics options way below the settings I’m using on Rincewind, have moved Tarma onto the wireless bridge (we think that her PCI wireless nic was causing most of the unreliability), and things seem to be playing smoothly – if a bit uglier than I would have liked.
My main is a lvl 14 halfling bard (and lvl 20 carpenter). I have kind of reached the point with him where soloing isn’t very effective. He can’t exactly tank, and he can’t exactly deal the kind of damage he would have if he had gone to either of the other scout subclasses. Bard needs party, and frankly, I’m hesitant to start hooking up with the natives for some odd reason or another.
Thankfully, there is the mentor system, which will allow me to use him to play with Penny. Of course, she’s so low level right now, that he ceases to become a bard if that happens 
I’ve got four other chars on the server atm: two fighters, a priest, and a mage. None of them are above lvl 7 and I am wondering about playing around with them. Looking at power sets makes me wish (strangely enough) that there were more than 24 classes in the game. I’m having a hard time finding something that interests me enough to blast through to lvl 10 or so. Silly, no?
Hrm. I’ve got a bit of time before I plan on going into work. I think I just might grind with my dwarf (fighter) for a bit and see if I can’t get the poor guy headed in the direction of becoming a useful tank.
Plans for chars?
dwarf fighter – tank, paladin or guardian (prolly guardian)
kitty fighter – dps, monk
human priest – not really sure
frog mage – nuke, prolly wizard
hobbit bard – spoony, dirge