Kocchi Muite Hoi!
30 June 2007
It's done it again. I watched Summer Snow again and it's left me feeling kind of down. That's what happened when I saw it for the first time. It was my first proper Japanese drama (the actual first was a live action version of Taiho Shichauzo but that doesn't really count) so it holds a lot of sentimental value. But it's actually a very good drama and it isn't the nostalgia that makes me say that. The story is very touching and the characters really get into your head and they feel like family after awhile. Perhaps the acting isn't quite as immaculate as it could be but the cast were very young at the time. They went on to become some of the most popular celebrities (for want of a better word) in Japan. Hirosue Ryoko for example was hugely famous for her song “Daisuki” and even sang at the NHK new year show: Kouhaku Uta Gassen), Doumoto Tsuyoshi is one half of the popular pop group “Kinki Kids” (and no, it's not as perverted as it sounds) and Oguri Shun went on to become a successful drama actor (although it could be said that he cost Yaguchi Mari her job as leader of Morning Musume). Some people criticised Summer Snow's ending for being too predictable. I do agree with them up to a point, but I don't think it does anything to detract from the impact it has. I mean Titanic got several Oscars and that had the most predictable ending ever. It might be a little dated by today's standards but if you can see it for what it is, you'll find an enjoyable drama that tugs at the heart strings. To me this drama holds almost as much emotional impact as 1 Litre of Tears, and that's saying a lot.
Still no internet yet. If the estimate of 10 days is correct them I should have it by next Friday... Gah! Just realised how far away that still seems. I've been counting down the days in agony since I ordered it. I could be waiting for another week at this rate /cry. I'm praying that they'll actually connect me earlier than Friday. You never know. I have yet to receive my Orange Livebox router yet. I'm going to sell my useless US Robotics router modem and wireless adapter and use the proceeds to buy a new wireless PCMCIA card. The US Robotics adapter isn't too good. When you move more than a few metres away it begins to lose signal strength quite rapidly. I'm pretty certain that those PCMCIA cards will give a better connection. We shall see if I'm right soon enough.
Posted byHocchan at 11:48 pm 0 comments
The Future's Bright, The Future's Orange
28 June 2007
Success! I got my phone line sorted out on Monday night and it was activated on Tuesday afternoon. I immediately went to the library and used the internet to sign up for Orange Broadband for £19.99 a month. They're sending me out their Livebox router and say it'll take about 10 days for them to activate the connection. Therefore, I should be back online for good sometime next week. I can't wait! The internet! Without having to travel to another city or be limited to 1 hours use. It's going to be great. I can finally resume my Final Fantasy XI career without too much concern. There'll be a lot of stuff I'll need to catch up on again. You can't quite beat that feeling of first coming back to the game though. It's like playing for the first time. You get that same feeling of overwhelming possibilities, like you have a million things you want to do but can't decide where to start. First port of call for me will be to finish off those Ninjutsu scroll quests I started on Tanakacchi. Then I should have a decent amount of money to level Corsair to 60 on Hocchan. One thing I'll definitely have to experience is that new battlefield Einherjar. I wonder if people have set up linkshells for it. If so I'll see about getting into one. Next week can't come soon enough!
While I was at the library on Tuesday I decided to take a look at the HMV website. Perhaps foolishly I went and searched for House season two. It was on sale for £12.99 on the website. I got too tempted and rushed over to the store in town and bought it for £15 instead. Now I have something to watch while I wait for the internet. One thing I have noticed about season two is that there's a lot more humour written in. The first season was a bit more serious and didn't have quite so many jocular (I love that word) moments. It also manages to be a lot darker at the same time. Gregory House's addiction to painkillers and drugs in general is delved into a bit more. You see a darker side to his character that wasn't quite so apparent before. I noticed they also changed the title sequence music. I preferred the original. The new one isn't quite as catchy but I guess it's better than the one for the pilot episode. I need to start pacing myself or I'm going to finish the whole season by tomorrow. It's just too damn compelling!
Posted byHocchan at 4:23 pm 2 comments
We Can Live With Dignity, We Can't Die With It
25 June 2007
I've had quite the enjoyable weekend. The reason being that I bought House season one on DVD from HMV for £15. They're having a massive sale on right now and I decided to take a look. The first thing I saw when I walked into the store was The Host for £7. That's a film which I've been checking regularly to see if its price ever dropped. And this was the moment I'd been waiting for. Fate, however, decided otherwise and threw up (no, not like that) another delicious prospect in the form of House season two. That was also £15 and I never thought I'd see it for so low ever again. I regretted my decision not to buy it a few months ago when it was a paltry £12. But the reason that I didn't buy it back then still applied; I wanted to get the season one box set first. I checked the TV Drama section and, bang! There it was. Same price as season two. All of a sudden I was like Natalie Imbruglia (no, not Australian, but torn, like her song). On the one hand I wanted to get The Host and see if it was any good. On the other hand I knew I didn't want to pass up this second chance at House goodness. I finally decided that 15+ hours of quality television beat 2 hours of uncertainty and bought House.
Two days later and I'm glad I made the right decision. I absolutely stormed my way through the series, usually 4-5 episodes in one sitting. I absolutely love this drama. For all the rubbish TV that America produces it does make some good dramas, I'll give them that. I like CSI and stuff, they're good to watch, but House just blows them out of the water. Not only has it got Hugh Laurie in it (a legendary British comedian/actor) but it also has Billy Kennedy out of Neighbours! Couple that with some great script writing and you have a recipe for greatness. The sheer joy that comes from seeing Gregory House upset everyone from his staff to the patients is immeasurable. House is the type of person I aspire to be but fail horribly because I'm too damn soft. I'm hoping that the sale on at HMV will continue for another couple of weeks so that I'll have enough money to buy season two. I couldn't live with myself if I missed out on this chance again.
Posted byHocchan at 12:02 am 0 comments
BT Phone Home
21 June 2007
It's been a right pain trying to sort out a BT line for the new house. I spent 30 mins on hold today trying to get through to their call centre. I only wanted to ask why I needed to pay a £50 deposit before I could get connected. When I did eventually get through I was told it was because of my credit rating. Bullcrap! I have a friend who's a declared bankrupt (he chose to do so though) and he didn't have to pay any deposit. Stupid BT /grumble. If they weren't the only company you could rent a phone line from I'd have gone elsewhere already it. As it is I've no choice but to pay. I guess I could get my parents to fork out the money. It will be repayable once we decide to close the account so it's not like we're losing that money. It's still a pain though. Hopefully getting broadband won't be so annoying. I'm thinking of switching ISPs to Orange. They do the same connection speed for £5 cheaper than my current one. They'd better not have any shady deposits as well or I'm going to be majorly peed off.
I'm still playing through Atelier Iris 2. It's getting better as it goes along. There is, however, the presence of Poe; quite possibly the most annoying character in an RPG ever! His bloody voice is irritating as hell, even in the Japanese dub, and the way he acts just gets on your nerves. Some people may find him cute, I find I want to hit him around the head with a shovel. Crappy characters aside, the gameplay is getting more interesting. As new recipes get discovered the scope for exploration increases. I can't help feeling this game is a little easy though. Apart from one insanely biased boss fight (where he uses a cheat move constantly), there haven't been too many challenging fights in the game. That would probably be my only criticism of the game at the moment. That and the prick Poe...
Posted byHocchan at 5:07 pm 0 comments
Excuse You? No F*ck You!
18 June 2007
Still no internet as of yet. I'm trying to get a phone line connected but BT's call centre is being annoying. I keep getting queued up for ages and when I ask them to call me back, they ring when I'm trying to cook something. Obviously that means I miss the call so I have to go back to the start of the queue again /sigh. If I ever manage to get through, it's going to be another 10 working days until they can connct me I think. Then I have to get my ISP sorted which will probably take another few days. I'll be lucky to have broadband by the end of the month. What's annoying is that I've paid for the month of June on FFXI and I'll only have used 2 days. Oh well.
I bought another game for the PS2 on Friday. It's Yakuza, the game with the most amount of swearing ever. Not a single conversation goes by with out 'shit', 'motherf*cker', or 'bastard' cropping up. But it really makes for some good laughs. Then English dubbing is probably the best in terms of humour since Shenmue. Which is not surprising considering how much the rest of the game is like Shenmue. From the way the main character walks, to the various mini-games, and fights, it's all very similar. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if this game was going to be Shenmue 3 before they decided it wouldn't be commercially viable. Still, it's no disadvantage to have so much similarity with one of the greatest games of all time. It's almost as much fun to play. The sheer amount of pain you can dish out in the battles is extremely satisfying. From smashing people over the head with neon lights and potted plants, to slicing people with katanas and beating people with dustbins. It's certainly a nice way to relieve some stress. Which there may be from time to time. Unfortunately the game does suffer from slight camera issues, as well some slightly biased fights where the enemy keeps interrupting your moves when you're trying to beat someone up. Apart from that though, it's a solid game. The story is engrossing enough, despite the ham acting at times, and the overall game experience is well worth the money. I'd recommend this game to anyone who enjoyed Shenmue or even Streets of Rage. I can't wait for the sequel!
Posted byHocchan at 1:57 pm 2 comments
The Azoth Of Destiny
11 June 2007
Sorry, I've been away a few days as I've been busy with various stuff. Things like sorting out my new room, visiting friends, etc. I also bought a new game for the PS2 called Atelier Iris 2. I had been searching for the first game but when I saw it on the used section of Gamestation for £17.99 I decided to buy it. The game is done in the classic anime graphics of RPGs from the 16bit era. The battle system is similar to that of Grandia in that the fights are done using an active battle gauge. Each character and the enemy have icons that move from left to right along the bar. Once someone reaches the end of it the battle stops and they get to do their actions. It's a very basic system but it works well. The main USP of this game is the ability to synthesise different items and weapons from elements found in the game world. It's very similar to the crafting system of Final Fantasy XI. You have to find the recipe first, then gather the materials, and provided you have the right Mana (sort of like a spirit of the various elements), you can create the item. Once you've made it the first time, you don't need to used materials to make it again, just the elements (fire, water, wood, etc.). It's a cool way to get new things for your character. I'm enjoying this game a lot. It makes a nice change from your standard RPG experience. I'm especially liking the ability to change the voice overs into Japanese. That has surely made the game 100% better as a result.
As promised, I've taken a few pictures of my bedroom. They can be found at this link (removed 05/08/07). It's not quite complete yet. I still need some sort of desk or chest of drawers by the wall to put my TV on. At the moment it's resting on a crude construction of boxes and magazines. I also need to get a TV aerial connection sorted, along with the internet. I'm not sure how long the latter is going to take though. I need to see when my Dad is going to get a BT phone line before I can get a broadband connection. Hopefully it won't take too long. I can only go for so long without playing FFXI /laugh.
Posted byHocchan at 3:12 pm 0 comments
La La La
07 June 2007
Today is moving day. Fun. We went over to a relative's house yesterday to pick up a bed for my room. It's one of those bunk beds where the bottom section is a pull-out sofa bed. It's also got a desk and drawers built into one side of it. Unfortunately, because of the layout of my room, it means that I don't get to use the drawers as they're next to the wall. That's only a slight inconvenience though, compared to the space I've saved. Now I can comfortably fit in a proper desk and a wardrobe. I'm not sure if my bookcase will go in though, I may have to leave that in the living room instead and get a smaller one. For now, my main concern is getting all my belongings out of storage. Thank God it's not too hot today, there's a lot of heavy lifting to come. I'll take some photos of the room when it's all done and I've unpacked everything.
I've just finished reading 'Reaper Man' from the Death trilogy by Terry Pratchett. It's become my favourite book out of all the ones I've read so far. The character of Death is so well constructed. He should be a terrifying image (which he can be from time to time) but you can't help becoming a fan. His apparent lack of emotions creates some interesting exchanges between the people that he meets. In a funny way, despite his infinite knowledge of the universe, he can be rather naive about things. This is what draws you to him. He has no concept of humour yet he constantly makes you laugh with his remarks. Truly a brilliant character.
Posted byHocchan at 9:49 am 3 comments
L'espoir Fait Vivre
05 June 2007
All right! We're moving into the new house on Thursday /joy. It means that soon I can have my own internet connection again instead of having to borrow someone else's. It all depends on whether there's a phone line connected at the new place, and how long it'll take to get Pipex to reconnect me. Hopefully it won't take too long. The house itself is pretty good. There are four bedrooms in all, three on the 1st floor and another in the loft. I get to have my own bedroom again which will be nice. I can't really get used to sharing a room, I tend to like a lot of privacy. The only problem now is trying to get our mass of belongings into the new place. My room is slightly smaller than the one I had before so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to fit my bed and desk in there, along with the bookcase. I may have to get creative with storage space. One thing is for sure, Thursday is going to be a long and tiring day. There's a lot of furniture to unpack. But it'll all be worth it in the end. Hurray!
I finally got around to watching those 'Hotelier' episodes that I'd been saving. I'm really glad that I decided to persevere with this drama. It's become a lot more interesting now that the plot has gotten into its stride. I am slightly disappointed to find out that it's only 8 episodes long. It does mean that the story is flowing pretty fast in each episode though which prevents it from dragging out and becoming a bore. I'm enjoying seeing Ueto Aya in this more mature role. Previously she'd been cast in mainly 'happy-happy' girly roles, which to be fair, she played really well, but perhaps didn't allow her to fully use her extensive acting talents. I'm early awaiting the last two episodes to be translated so I can find out what happens after the thrilling conclusion to episode 6.
Posted byHocchan at 9:34 am 0 comments
Living On A Prayer
03 June 2007
Hallo! I'm writing this entry from the first class section of a train, which is quite nice. I got on the 12:12 to Blackpool and the whole thing was packed to bursting. Not a seat to be seen in any of the carriages. I ended up having to stand in the space by the doors with a couple of people. After about 5 minutes the conductor came and told us that we could go sit in the first class section since there were some free seats. Result! The whole area is a lot more comfortable and has plug sockets for laptops and mobile phones. I'm not sure how much more first class tickets cost over the standard fare but, if it's not too expensive, I may upgrade class in the future. I could definitely get used to this!
Right, onto the main news. I decided to spend an extra day in Salford so that I could finish a couple of things on Final Fantasy XI. I started off by levelling Warrior on Tanakacchi in Qufim. After that I managed to get help for my Kazham keys quest from Zansho. We got them fairly quickly and without too much trouble. I handed the keys in and received my airship pass. Immediately headed out to Norg to start the various Ninjutsu scroll quests. I managed to complete Tonko, Utsusemi, Dokumori and Hojo before I ran out of playtime. I'll have to get Kurayami and Jubaku done when I return to the game. Once the scrolls sell on the auction house I should have around 700,000 gil so that's going to be cool. I should be able to break a million gil once I've done all the teleport scroll quests. It's going to be so nice having money again after being poor for so long. I'll be able to carry on with my Corsair on Hocchan and maybe make a start on Monk with Tanakacchi. Bring on the cash! Roll up, roll up! Some lovely scrolls for sale, mint condition, two for a Pound!
I almost had a heart attack earlier this morning. Whilst checking Wikipedia to see if Horie Yui had starred in any new anime, I came across a shocking article. Someone had written that Yui had married some guy from V6 in 2004! What?! Is this true? And if so, why didn't I hear about this sooner? I had to confirm if this outrageous news was true or not so I scoured the various Japanese fan pages, and (thankfully) managed to gleam enough information to conclude that the rumour is untrue. Well, I'm fairly certain that it's bogus, but I couldn't be 100% sure as my Japanese is far from perfect. Not that it'd be bad if Yui did get married, it would just be a big shock. If and when it does happen, I'll be happy for her (sightly jealous but happy). However, it doesn't look like I should be worried about it just yet. I've got to find out who wrote that article and slap them with a tractor... can't go around writing crap like that.
Posted byHocchan at 12:37 pm 0 comments
Mizuiro No Ame
02 June 2007
Well, I tried it. I tried to be happy and upbeat but the world has broken my spirit. It all started so well this morning but soon went downhill as the day went on. In Final Fantasy XI I managed to make a decent amount of money from killing Giants in Delkfutt's Tower. I then got a party with Thief on Tanakacchi which started off crap (mainly due to a newb leader) but got better as it went on (he left without warning like a dipstick so we got a White Mage instead). That was the highlight of the day. Everything after that was turd. Perhaps it was because I was tired this evening. I just started to get irritated by minor things and they gradually built up into a ball of complete misery by the end of the evening. The most annoying thing was when Electricgirl tried to help me get a Ghelsba chest key. I stupidly zoned out of the area, and would you know it, a key dropped when I wasn't able to lot it. After that we tried to get another but it refused to drop. I ran out of time and had to run off to do Assault. Obviously by this point I was thoroughly miserable so that wasn't much fun. What got on my nerves was the fact that today would be my last day of playing before I have to return home. There were a lot of things I wanted to complete but they didn't happen. Bah, maybe a break will do me good. And some sleep.
Hurrah! Fujimoto Miki's resigned from Morning Musume. Good riddance I say. She's officially set the record for the shortest leadership of the group at only 26 days. She never really cared about Morning Musume, you could see that from the day she joined and also from the various Hello Morning programmes. Her attitude to the whole matter is despicable and I'm glad she's gone. The new (newest) leader is now Takahashi Ai, and the sub-leader is Niigaki Risa. They're two members who I respect and I hope they can turn around this disastrous year. Long Live Morning Musume!
Posted byHocchan at 3:38 am 0 comments
