Journey into Mystery

Excuse the Spanish for a sec. Quería decir hola a la gente del friending meme de masquefandom, hola! Me llamo Christel pero también pueden llamarme Kiri, espero que nos llevemos bien.

I'm trying to be more productive this year, with miscellaneous results. I can't say it's working but at least I'm routing myself towards it? I don't even know.

α. I started rereading Lord of the Rings today. I'm getting ready to skip the forest descriptions. I've only read every book and watched every movie like once, so my mini-failgoal this year is going through them in both mediums. I dunno, Tumblr has been reblogging a lot of Tolkien stuff and I feel like doing it.

β. I finished the original novel of Seirei no Moribito. It's not bad at all, but I actually like the anime's pacing and changes better. The race/culture meta in it was interesting, though. I have the second book which wasn't adapted, let's see if with unknown material I can have wiser expectations.

γ. It's not like Pokémon X/Y isn't shiny, but I haven't played Black/White 2 yet so my body is not ready. In a "lol okay" sort of way instead of excitement, I mean.

δ. I came around to play the 3DS port of Tales of the Abyss. I haven't touched the damn console since I got Kid Icarus and sucked enormously at it. And I'm in the mood for RPG yet not for a new game, so it's cool.

First things first. I revamped my domain despite the fact I haven't worked in any sites forever. Mostly because it had been so long with the same layout and most images were broken and that's sad. So here it is, a little dull but at least it's clean and a fairly good practice to some CSS3.


mercury-retrograde.net

If I ever get less lazier, I'll make the avatar-ish image in the sidebar a random image of fandoms I like. And maybe make skins in different colors. But so far it's enough as it is.

Fandom-wise, I haven't been up to a lot of stuff. I've kind of been really active on plurk but mostly because a lot of friends from the RP are over there. I've been limiting my time on Tumblr because it's a fucking black hole for visual magpies, but I still check the dash and update my blogs at least twice a day.

( New anime season, other shit I've watched, me failing as gamer forever )

ETA: I did buy a HDD in the end. It's a 1TB electric blue WD which I named TARDIS.

I've been a seriously lame LJ user lately. Guess I've been easily distracted recently. So let's try to sum shit up.

TV stuff (and some comics tossed in)

So Doctor Who cliffhanger. I'm surprised that my crazy theories (and almost everybody else's, actually) back from the first two-parter AND some rumors I heard turned out to be both true. It was an epic mid-finale episode anyway, but a huge part of my thoughts are pretty much:

( Thin-veiled spoilers for Doctor Who AND the Booster Gold series )

In any case and as much as an asshole he might be, the way Moffat trolls people over Twitter is hella amusing.

Gaming stuff

On Friday I went to a clearance sale at PC City and got Hotel Dusk 2 Last Window: The Secret of Cape West and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep at a pretty cheap price. My brothers lost their PSP's memory stick, so guess I won't be playing KH until I buy one.

So, E4! Nothing I care about for Microsoft, don't own current Sony consoles nor I'm going to. The Wii U controller is a little WTF. In any case, I'm all pumped for Skyward Sword and Kid Icarus Uprising.

Also, I'm kinda depressed because the Ocarina of Time remake comes out for my birthday, but hell if I'm going to buy a 3DS. I'd rather wait for the mandatory lite version, unless I see a fair pack with a worthy game.

Book stuff

I've read the first book of The Dresden Files. All my friends love the series in a masochistic way, but so far I'm not sure if I'll like it enough. On the meantime I started The Red Pyramid. I had started this novel with Greek gods as protagonists, but after Athena willingly losing her virginity in chapter two I'm not sure if I want to continue for the trainwreck.

Random stuff

WHY is the largest mall in Spain (and third largest in Europe) in my city? This place isn't important! It makes no fucking sense!

Quick list:

α The tabs I have left open for research for original fic or blog posts I want to write get weirder and weirder, including Wikipedia links about tricksters and troubadours. Not for the same thing, sadly. I think this is why I rarely write: MY IMAGINATION IS TOO RANDOM.

β I'm getting used to reading in my silly gadget. My main issue is focusing in one book at the time.

γ The first finished thing this year was Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman. Even if it's a short story aimed at children, this might be my favorite mythology-based thing from everything he's written. I thought the main character was going to be like Hiccup, and in the end he was That Kid In Animanga Who Always Grins To Creep You Out ^_^ Trufax.

δ And because some of you were talking about it, I tried 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors(aka 999) yesterday. No$GBA wasn't saving well, so I used DeSmuME to play the ROM instead. I got to the Safe ending, I'll do the True ending later, then maybe the rest of the bad ends. The game is pretty good, some sort of ungodly hybrid between Hotel Dusk and Phoenix Wright gameplay wise, but very Agatha Christie meets any horror film with people trapped in a twisted game of sorts. It's pretty good if you like those two genres. Also, is it just me or the corpse descriptions are gross? I know that death by explosion is hella awful, but maaaaaan, TMI.

ε Read more of The Iliad, self!

Hey, you know, I like ports of old games! I've bought/gotten my fair amount of games I really enjoyed but never finished, or I'm too lazy to replay, or I don't have the original console anymore. Most of them are Zeldas, but dudes, I feel a sort of homely comfort knowing I can replay Ocarina in at least two (soon three) consoles other than NINTENDOSIXTYFOUUUR.

True, when they add new shit or remove old shit beyond improves to gameplay it's a bit YMMV for me, depending on the game, but then I watch a gif of a dog putting on sunglasses and I deal with it.

But yeah, like them ports. Even better, I love ports to handhelds! I discovered I'm more consistent playing on a GBA/NDS than a control/keyboard. I can play tiny chunks on bed or while I wait for something. This is several kinds of useful when it's a JRPG and it boosts my productivity, to the point I can actually reach the ending. I rarely finish games in consoles, I have to love it too dearly to give it dedication. But handhelds are magical like that for RPGs. And I honestly don't care about equal/loss of quality: I want to (RE)PLAY IT!

So when I hear that those bastards at NAMCO are porting Abyss to 3DS, my thought is "and how many lambs do I have to sacrifice to which pagan god for this to come to the West?"

I'd LOVE to own this one legally. I couldn't find it in a fair price at eBay and, since I had to mod my PS2 to play it either way, I shrugged and went pirate. Undubbed for extra fangirling. But really, this game and canon has given me so much joy, I'd happily sink my money on it. Even if it's the same game with the same graphics. But you have to translate it, NAMCO! I'm not even counting for it to get to Europe because it's you, but at least bring it to USA. Hopefully Nintendo doesn't decide to region-lock like those Sony wankers.

So when I hear that the fandom is whining about being trolled, my thought is "...you guys wouldn't survive a day in an ATLUS or Squeenix fandom, wouldn't you? lol wait, the Tales series is already portalicious, what the hell guys."

Haters to the left. PORTS ARE NORMAL BUSINESS. NO ONE ASKS YOU TO BUY A 3DS. IGNORE IT. Unless they do a Vesperia, then any wank is more than justified (and frankly, unless it's metacanon about the Keterburg gang or mindless sidequests, I'd prefer they don't add anything beyond new costumes), but we still don't know that so CHILL, OH MY GOD.

*wakes up*
*reads RSS feeds*
*still sleepy, clicks on news about rumors on Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster*

"Capcom: Ryu, Chun Li, Dante, Felicia, fucking Frank West go DIAF, blah blah blah Amaterasu blah blah--"

...

WHAT THE EFF!

*blue screen of death*



I don't believe it. Even if this is true, I have no idea if I'd buy this. I wanted Ammy in Tatsunoko, and this crossover game is too uuuuuh American for her. I will say this, though: AMATERASU WOULD SO KICK THOR'S ASS. REPEATEDLY. (well, she'd kick everyone's ass, but just sticking to lolgods...)

For some reason I can't fathom, I went and bought SoulSilver. Why, self; you have never finished a Pokémon game in your life. And I still have Final Fantasy 6 and like a dozen endings of Chrono Trigger to do on the NDS.

I went with Totodile as my starter because I like water pokeymans.

The Animated Movie Meme:
- X what you saw
- O what you haven't finished/saw sizable portions
- Bold what you loved
- Italics for what you disliked/hated
- Leave unchanged if neutral

( So outdated. Oh, and! Is there a good camrip of How To Train Your Dragon, guys? )

Now I need to rewatch Road to El Dorado. Where was the DVD where I burned it, again?

So, video game times. I was in the mood today for the punching and kicking shit up genre. But because I'm a magpie with sun in Gemini, instead of taking action games I have began, I picked new oldies that I got/downloaded/borrowed a while ago and never tried. I have gathered so many PS2 games I don't know which ones to play, really.

1. I remembered I downloaded the Prince of Persia Trilogy compilation, and jumped at Sands of Time. This was sweet! Frustrating sweet but hey, what are platforms without falling and swearing a lot? What I didn't love was when I got stuck in a room, not because I had nowhere to jump, but because it was massive respawning enemy showdown.

Some zombie whores killed me. Repeatedly.

2. Fuck this shit, I'll go with God of War I. May I remind you that I bought a second-hand copy which didn't stop loading before the first miniboss. Well, I got it changed, and on that day I played up till the Hydra. I retook it today and got until the port of Athens.

...It got stuck on loading again! I swear, there's someone who doesn't want me to play this! Is it ARES himself?! IS IT BECAUSE I SAID YOU SCREAMED LIKE A SISSY IN THE ILIAD?! I'M NOT TAKING IT BACK. DOUCHEBAG.

3. Screw hack 'n slash. Let's see what Beyond Good and Evil is all about. I still haven't got to the plot yet, but I'm truly digging it so far! I can't exactly say why I liked it yet, though. Sadly I wasn't in the mood at the moment, so I'm saving it for another day.

4. Later in the evening I wanted something slow and even more (more?!) retro, so I fetched my SNES emulator for pixel RPG. I remembered how I got stuck stupidly in the first few minutes of Final Fantasy VI (or III, whatever). I was all "eh, why not", and popped it in. I survived an hour, which is impressive.

No, you know what's impressive? Me liking the characters so far. IN A FINAL FANTASY GAME.

...Edgar is so my kind of character ♥ With only half an hour of knowing him, I know that much.

happy new year! ♥

I'll break the deredere to say thank you, for being around. I know I'm a lousy friend, but this was a shitty year and without you guys or fandom, it would've been even more sucktacular. You make me feel less lonelier, so gracias.

Now let's try to recap this past year a bit. This is completely subjective, of course.

( Randomness )

( Weird manga I read was updated last night: Historie, Vinland Saga, Katana )

So, my brothers' Wii was connected to the TV in the basement for a few months. It was done once to have the space for Wii Fit or whatever, but no one used that shit anymore. I think Ale played twice with it since it's there, and it was by the time the 360 went RRoD. This drove me insane, since I have an useless TV set in my bedroom (at my mom's) now that they changed the living room's and put the old one there. They gave me an equally idle DVD player but it doesn't read discs.

Tired of this, I kidnapped it yesterday, installed it, and played some Tales of Symphonia.

And you know what, I'll go broke for reals but I'm buying Muramasa this week. Sure, okay, I have no Wii at home but neither do I have 360 and I got Vesperia (haven't played it again because my brothers hoard it with their FPSs). Besides, there's this rumor that only 1200 copies of Muramasa are going around Spain and I live in a tiny city.

Oh, and that meme.

You know how sometimes people on your friendslist post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-word answers seldom help anyone out.

( Booooooring )