dmxrated

Last year, a certain someone asked me to change her old username, suggesting "Chelle" as a substitute name, in order to dissociate that with someone like myself who talks about certain subject matter. I've already since taken care of that on Dreamwidth, and have just finished it here now.

If anyone revisiting finds any comments missing anywhere, they were probably hers from before she closed her account here. Most of them will still be under the equivalent entries in DW; I was lucky to have copied everything onto DW right beforehand, although that did save me the hassle of reconstructing everything here (which I still did under several entries, along with updating links here and there mostly to redirect to DW).

(I have also deleted just about everything I ever wrote about AnimeHippie, something I would like just to forget about.)

Again, though, here is my DW account where I am active today:

https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/

http://accioharo.tumblr.com/post/1…

In light of events described in the linked Tumblr entry, I will continue blogging at a site called Dreamwidth Studios, as per Chelle's recommendation, who has already de-friended everyone here in preparation for closing her blog down altogether (since Tumblr already covers all of its former purposes, such as fiction rants).

https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org

(The Tumblr entry did say to comply with this site's new TOS and delete one's account here in order to complete the setup on Dreamwidth, but everything has been successfully imported as of this morning (save for my comments, which are still queued), and I can see them just fine. I will not be deleting this blog, because there are still entries and tags I have linked to (especially in PMs and emails, which cannot be retrieved for revision).)

(Thanks to Adalia Glenys, whom I've long stopped expecting to hear from again, for telling me about this site, only a few months after I lost a lot of stuff I had previously written to Microsoft Word.)

Made some mezzo rigatoni and meatballs, but they didn't turn out very good. The pasta was a little tough, and the meatballs were still rather soft despite being rolled around in the same pot that I cooked the pasta in.

Left it all on the stove in case Brian might've wanted to fix it up, but eventually decided just to throw it out.

Gonna try to see what I did wrong one of these days before I try again.

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Brian had come back to the apartment at 7. He and I spent most of the evening neatening the place up, but he had to call tech support for help with setting up the TV wi-fi connection. That took about half an hour, but then he decided to watch an episode of Dragon Ball GT, and I went along with him.

Brian and I looked on Google Maps yesterday to figure out where to buy a coaxial cable. The first store pointed out was just a little ways off from Center Street, so I figured I'd remember where I was supposed to turn.

In practice, I wound up heading way past it, but far enough to reach CVS and buy a razor and some shaving cream (since there are no outlets in his bathroom for my electric razor). After a few phone calls with him and Mom, I backtracked and looked out for a post office from which he told me to turn, but ended up spotting Ace Hardware just near an intersection, and managed to get what I needed there.

Hooked the modem up after arriving back at the apartment and having a nap from all that walking. It was after Brian came back from work and asked which network I was on that I'd realize that we had Internet access this whole time; I opened up my laptop, and signed in to what I originally mistook for an ad to get me to subscribe to wi-fi, using some credentials that he had given me the other day.

He looked at the modem and called tech support anyway, upon realizing that it still wasn't working even hooked up as it was.

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Continued that conversation I had the day prior with Jake. He told me that he won't be home from a family trip he's on until the 18th, but in the meantime, while he's going to lose Internet access to circumstances a week from now, he will be able then to compile some ideas he came up with for a Makeruna! Makendou story premise I proposed the other day.

In the meantime, we are also discussing some ideas for Parasitic Trio, regarding the relationship between Ellen and May. ( Collapse )

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Brian had Colleen over, who had high hopes of having some spaghetti and meatballs with us. While I had made some meatballs at home that I brought up here with me, I was too tired to prepare anything for dinner, and even made that clear to Brian before she came.

After some deliberation, we decided instead to eat out at Dogwood, where we each got our own thing for dinner. Given how much faster I tend to eat than others (I've even known Dad to tell me to slow down while eating dinner), Brian suggested that I could have ordered dessert while he and Colleen were still eating what they ordered to begin with, and even left me a dessert menu while I went to the restroom at one point.

Decided on an Oreo brownie, which consisted of cookies 'n' cream, a warm brownie, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream, with two dollops of whipped cream on the sides. The three of us shared it, but then I went back to the apartment while they offered to foot the bill, so that I could brush my teeth and go to bed on the couch before they'd have a chance to take that to watch TV.

Brian picked up a modem after getting off from work yesterday, but the one he got was somehow missing a cable.

Went to Marie's last night, and chatted with Jake on Skype for a bit, and then took a nap, while she and I awaited Brian (still asleep at the time). At some point, Marie went out to fetch a pizza, and I had three slices while we still awaited him.

He managed to come not long after we finished eating, and the three of us (along with Marie's roommate Kaileigh) watched episodes 3 and 4 of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, before Brian and I went back to his place. (Brian told us before we loaded 3 that he had already seen the first two a number of times.)

(Brian and I didn't bother watching Lucky Star or reviewing anything I've written after coming back, but that he was able to watch two episodes of anything, on a work-night, does give me hope of accomplishing everything I came here to do sooner than later.)

Brian showed me an alternate route to Marie's apartment yesterday morning, since she, too, had moved last September. Made some small talk with Marie, her roommates, and Mom, before the two of us headed back.

Not long after, Marie rang me to come open the side-door of the building, so that we could move some more stuff in from the van. Once done with that, all of us except Brian (who stayed behind) went to some diner, where Mom and Dad got coffees while I got a sandwich and some orange juice for lunch. While I awaited said sandwich, Mom, Dad, and Marie continued their way to Boomerang, and I would catch up with them after eating, before we all headed back.

Brian had gone off to work, and the others stayed for only a few minutes before Mom and Dad headed home. I had a couple of naps and started re-reading volume 2 of Japanese in Mangaland while waiting for Brian to come back, and also invited Marie to eat out at this nearby restaurant called Dogwood with Brian. (Got myself some pork stickers and some pulled pork on a burger.)

When we got back, Brian and Marie took some time to put a couch together. Managed to watch one episode of Lucky Star w/ Brian after they were done.

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Read The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past while waiting for Brian to wake up this morning. So far, due to the circumstances surrounding our wi-fi connection, the only computer I've been able to use was a desktop iMac right in front of his bed, and it's no coincidence that I'm finally writing this up after he's just woken up minutes ago.

Yesterday was the long drive up to Boston. Ate lunch out at Mystic Diner; I thought it was okay, but Dad didn't think too highly of what he got.

All five of us went to Ikea after bringing stuff up into Brian's new apartment. At first, we all considered letting me just stay at the apartment instead of walking around being bored in the store, but I ultimately decided to come along. That turned out to be the better choice, instead of sitting around all cooped up upstairs with little to do on the Internet.

Brian, having missed lunch earlier on, got some stuff to eat at the food court, but was still able to have something substantial when we ate out at this diner called Doyle's, where Mom and I were too full to have anything beyond a small cup of chili each.

Drove to Marie's apartment after leaving Doyle's, and we each had a slice of a small marble cake that Marie got, before Brian led me back to his place. (Marie had also gotten a box of cupcakes, but we'll probably start having those today before Mom and Dad go back home.

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Normally, I am against adding stuff retroactively to entries that are more than a day old. My previous one is an exception, though, because I don't want anyone misconstruing the "non-badass" list as anything that's either comical or cute. (Thinking outside of Konami but focusing on stuff I played in '97, The Legend of Zelda (we owned A Link to the Past) and Pilotwings (rented the N64 game once, w/ Super Mario 64 and an actual Nintendo 64) would be on that list.)

(To save you time you might otherwise spend skimming if you read it between add-ins, one of them is a simple (and actual) slot machine, one is just athletics, one of them is an RPG with rather whimsical aesthetics, and a few of the originals (or added very shortly after posting) include a certain shoujo-anime-tie-in, a game set on a desert island, and a dating sim.)

Mentioning, because I told Brian about the entry yesterday in the van, and I think he might be able to pinpoint better what it really is with this information on the table. And yes, I know this is a form of "box-thinking," but yeah, I hadn't played enough games to dichotomize in the first place back then, and if Brian's then-friend Craig had lent us such games as Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Goemon's Great Adventure, as known in Japan) or Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose, I would have more than likely associated the company name very differently (save, maybe, for its "badass" red-and-gold logo emblem).

Well, this is my last afternoon home before we head up to Boston, so in anticipation to a certain entry I would like translated later, let's fill the time in and get this out of the way:

It was throughout 1997 when I discovered the name, tied with such games as Zombies Ate My Neighbors, TMNT IV: Turtles in Time, Contra III: The Alien Wars, Super Castlevania IV, and Biker Mice from Mars. Given that, the name itself sounded cool and associable with badassery, but that's exactly what's ironic here. While that particular company is also renowned for other franchises like Suikoden, Metal Gear Solid, Zone of the Enders, and Yu-Gi-Oh!, it makes all kinds of games. Cases in point: I mentioned before, having watched Tommy Costa play Rocket Knight Adventures (mostly comical) on his Genesis once earlier on, but I didn't really pay attention to the legal info or even the title. Meanwhile, Japan has seen various moe franchises such as Di Gi Charat, Super Gals, and Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch associated with it, exactly what Lucky Star belongs with as a franchise.

https://dmxrated.dreamwidth.org/62…

Technically, I will mainly seek a translation of the description of the Day of the Beehive cover image, but the above-quoted entry is something I had linked to from there. If Yoshimizu becomes curious about the Economy logo when I show him the pic itself, I would want to provide an explanation regarding that as well.

With that, here is how I'd categorize all kinds of games and franchises published and/or owned by Konami itself:

Badass:

-Airforce Delta
-Batman
-Biker Mice from Mars
-Bomberman: Act Zero
-Castlevania
-Contra
-Dance Dance Revolution
-Deadly Arts
-Gradius
-Guitar Freaks
-Jackal
-Life Force
-Metal Gear
-Metal Warriors
-Metamorphic Force
-Monster In My Pocket
-Motocross Maniacs
-The Mummy
-Nightmare Creatures II
-Silent Hill
-Suikoden
-Sunset Riders
-Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
-Violent Storm
-X-Men
-Yu-Gi-Oh!
-Zombies Ate My Neighbors
-Zone of the Enders

Not so badass:

-Animaniacs
-Azure Dreams
-Bomberman (Act Zero aside)
-Crash Bandicoot
-Death Jr.
-Disney*
-Frogger
-Ganbare Goemon
-The Grinch
-Holy Magic Century**
-Konami Krazy Racers
-Love Plus
-Mail de Cute
-Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
-Money in the Bank (a slot machine)
-Noah's Ark
-Parodius
-Rakugakids
-Rocket Knight Adventures
-The Simpsons
-Starcomi
-Survival Kids
-Tiny Toon Adventures
-Track & Field
-Twinbee
-Woody Woodpecker

(*Konami was responsible for such games as A Bug's Life (at least the Japanese PSX version) and the Disney Sports series around 2000.)

(**The PAL version of Eltale Monsters (Imagineer of Japan) and Quest 64 (THQ of America))

And, as I would discover later, Starcomi actually had nothing to do with Di Gi Charat, which in turn presumably never had anything to do with Konami. Broccoli was the real company responsible for the franchise's game division before and after its accidental depiction in Nintendo Power, having even released at least two games for the Game Boy Color.

If Lucky Star: Day of the Beehive were an actual game published by the real Konami, though, it would definitely make the bottom list above.

Gaynor has finally finished translating Starbound, chapter 1. I successfully made a deal with her to pay half the remainder of what I would owe her, and the rest of it when I come home in a week or so. Mom already chewed me out the other day upon finding out about such an expensive translation I've commissioned for when I'm already planning to stay at Brian's, but I went on to explain what my plan overall is, citing this as a way to promote my planned Kickstarter campaign. (Speaking of which, having slept on it, I will probably host both the chapter and the campaign when Marie comes home from her own upcoming trip to Japan, so as to let her decide if she's interested once she has no more travelling expenses to manage.)

Having just started to proofread it, here are the first few main lines of the story as Gaynor wrote them:

( Collapse )

What they say does provide a clearer idea of what they're supposed to be doing, but 摘む, if read as "tsumu", according to both Google and The Learner's Kanji Dictionary, can also translate into "pick" or "pluck". The same character combination can also be read as "tsumamu", meaning "pinch" (according to Google, which provides no other translations but only converts the romaji to hiragana) or "pick up or hold between the thumb and fingers" (according to that dictionary), but even if Yoshimizu is smart enough to picture things correctly, it would be awkward if some blind idiot mistranslated it into any subsequent language. (Good thing the game will present this through mugshots instead.)

Well, Gaynor already advised me not to rely on a dictionary, lest anything seem unnatural, and Japanese in Mangaland does show how messily Japanese can translate at face value, when phrases like "Feel drunk!" (酔った!) and "Twice mouth take out!"(二度と口に出すな!) are meant in context to translate respectively into "Gonna puke!" and "Don't mention it again!"

Asked Rongho to start reading the different Madoka spinoff manga while we suspend business for up to a year. He told me that he had discovered many different Puellae Magi ever since we started, and asked for a list of everyone else to be drawn fat.

Right now, he is unable to buy any actual manga, but has expressed interest in it and would like to continue the series. I had made it clear during our discussion that I cannot afford to make any further purchases while I commission for translations and save up otherwise for that trip, so he and I agreed to arrange for others to donate copies of their manga to him or buy new copies online to be shipped to him when I post a certain entry onto my deviantArt blog. (I got his permission to share his address with anyone interested, so that they can have stuff sent directly to him instead of to me first.)

(Before I write said entry up, I am waiting mainly for the translation of Starbound, chapter 1, so as to tie this in with my planned Kickstarter campaign. I was originally going to request money, and allow anyone who donates to the Cibus series to decide who gets drawn up next, but this seems like an even better idea to start with.)