Eldrad must live

Warning: completely arbitrary "best of" list ahoy!

...I figure it's late enough in the PS2's lifespan to look back on the games released for it as a whole. And specifically, my chosen genre of game, the RPG. So, bored and fueled by cinnamon bears, I am making a top ten list of the best PS2 RPGs ever.

( My list (spoilers ahoy) )

Okay! Making this post was one of my goals for the weekend; others are making a post about cracktastic yaoi manga (the one I've been promising for like 3 months), posting about how the manga Princess Princess changed my life (...kinda), posting some Old English riddles that enkiae was asking about, playing a shitload of Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana, and watching a shitton of Doctor Who (they tried to deliver my megaset today but I was off teaching, so I get to go to the Post Office and pick it up tomorrow, whee!).

Today it literally took me about two minutes to do the People crossword. Seriously, SO EASY.

Also, in breaking news, I HATE BIRDS. I went downtown to pick up some bubble mailers (to send BPAL) and pop, and halfway home a bird crapped on my head. And I'd just taken a shower, too, which meant I had to wash my hair twice in two hours which I'm fairly certain means I will have split ends all to hell tomorrow.

I also drew a picture during my breaks from reading Aurora Leigh. If you're in the mood for some Persona fanart, look no further. (For once it doesn't look like ass!)

...Those of you who remember What is Silent Hill? (that I posted earlier) may enjoy this (for SH fans) and this (for JoJo fans).

And finally, something that managed to traumatize even me: a horrific Harry Potter slash fancomic (NOT WORKSAFE - from jokersama, who else?), featuring crossdressing!Harry, crossdressing!Snape, and voyeur!Lupin, AUGH.

OK, more SuikoTactics.

( In which we meet The Maybe Traitor and Corselia grows Mary Sue Princess Power (oh noes) as well as a backbone (oh yesses) )

( BPAL: Al-Araaf )

( BPAL: Alone )

( BPAL: Spirits of the Dead )

Let's Positive Linking!
- Murderous Santa display protests secularization of Christmas. Featuring Santa: Special Serial Killer Edition! :D
- 83-year-old grandma hits 3-story beer bong. I would totally be all OMG COOLEST GRANDMA EVAR, except that Old Grandma Hardcore is still cooler. However, this lady shows a definite adventurous streak that I have to admire.
- Top 100 Engrish moments in videogames. Wubba, wubba. I'm in the pink today, boy!
- Knitta, please. A new and bizarre kind of urban graffiti. (This and the above links have been brought to you by jokersama.)
- Bush Shuffles His Shuffle. Or, The Confusing Part of Using an iPod. (From surlykitty.)
- A funny Advent Children parody. (From firestorm717.) I liked the Pokemon reference the best. XD
- Apparently Suikoden Tactics is getting a UK release for all you Brits on the flist. Now you too can have TOTALLY HOTT short-shorted gay pirate action, the sequel! :D

First, some random stuff:

- Happy birthday to ahebert!

- You know, it's ridiculous how consistently good the Suikoden albums are. (All like two dozen or however many of them there are.) I've been going on a downloading spree from the Galbadia Hotel videogame soundtracks download section. (They also have quite a few Megaten albums, including Punitive Dance, if any of y'all are interested and don't know about it already.) But seriously, Suikoden's had everything from Celtic to jazz to orgel (music box) to piano albums, and they're ALMOST ALL GOOD. x_x

I also like how some of them take songs I never particularly noticed in the original (like the piano version of the first Suikoden's "Dancing Girl") and rearrange it to the point where I'm like, "wow, that's actually a really pretty melody, I never noticed that before."

- I have discovered recently that I have phone phobia. In fact, I think I've always had it. I hate talking on the phone to people, and avoid it whenever possible. This is a completely general and impersonal thing - even when it comes to people I like very much and know very well and have no problem talking to in person, I always feel like I have trouble talking to them on the phone. And this is even more true for people I don't know particularly well - even if I'd be fine talking to them in person or by e-mail, on the phone I'm always an incoherent mess and it just gets bad.

So, in conclusion, phone conversations = TEH EBIL, and from now on I will try to engineer things so I have to have them as little as possible.

- Also, Saturday marked my return to IRC for the first time in a long while (like, since about halfway through my year in England). I hadn't realized, but I'd missed it! :O

...And to lead in to the Suikoblog, here's an interview on SuikoTactics. My favorite part:

Matsukawa: Since Kyril and Andarc are simpletons, we made Seneca the comic relief to contrast them.

SO TRUE. XD

( In which NO ONE NOTICES THE CHILD MOLESTER, WTF, and the party's gay content is upped 1000% )

( BPAL: Machu Picchu )

( BPAL: Tenochtitlan )

( BPAL: Black Rose )


Fun at the Titty Twister.


Which B-Movie Badass Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Let's Positive Linking!
- First face transplant recipient doing well. I dunno, I think it would be weird wearing part of someone's face - a little too Texas Chainsaw Massacre for me. Still, diff'rent strokes and all that.
- I wanna go to the Japanese penis festival! It looks fun! :D
- Cthulhu Family Circus. (From jantalaimon.) Just what Family Circus needed to actually be funny - Lovecraft writing the scripts!
- Also, some very disturbing communities firestorm717 linked to that promptly BROKE MY BRAIN AUGH: hitlerslash, nazifetisch and kinkynakednazis. Not safe for work or if you're allergic to bad Photoshopped pr0n of Hitler and Goebbels gettin' it on.
- CNN reports on CNN. What I love is how they've basically written up an ad for their own service as an OMG IMPORTANT NEWS STORY. x_x
- Magazine Covers from the Future. (This and the above one from angrybabble.) Pretty funny, requires Flash.
- Microsoft sued over Xbox 360 glitch. Wow, that was fast. XD
- Sexy Bible calendar to be released. I love the pastor's line about teens committing to the Bible "with their hair and skin." Creepy much?

Okay, more Suikotactoblog! (I swear I wasn't going to play any more this evening, but it SUCKED ME BACK IN AUGH.)

( In which we meet the Pirate Threesome and see a certain familiar Rune )

And that's the end of the Suikoblog for today (for reals this time!). But tune in another day - same bat-time, same bat-channel.

( BPAL: Centzon Totochtin )

( BPAL: Whitechapel )

Let's Positive Linking!
- Laurell K. Hamilton apparently pulled an Anne Rice a few months ago. For those of you who aren't familiar with LKH, she's the author of the Anita Blake series of vampire novels, which I hugely enjoyed until it basically became softcore porn. And for the record, I've always disliked Richard and I still thought she'd gone way overboard with the sex. (Her recent book even had Anita being tag-teamed by a wereleopard and a werewolf - who partially shapeshift in the middle of sex. Can we say "furry fetish?") Also, it's hard to believe that a published author can be so woeful at spelling. I mean, come on..."privaledge?" XD
- And a parody of one of her more recent books FOR TEH WIN. Sadly, this is not all that far off. XD
- And while we're bashing fantasy authors, a rant on Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind. Never read Goodkind (and after reading that, don't want to) but attempted to wade through the first Wheel of Time book and made it through like 50 pages before the snore-inducingness of it all made me give it up as a lost cause. Sounds like I'm not missing much. I know a lot of people who love the books though (like my mom, and I think rathershady reads them too), so YMMV.

You know, if they do a PS3 remake of Final Fantasy VII, what I'd be most looking forward to seeing? How they handle the Honeybee Inn sequence. XD

Anyway, this weekend rathershady and courters28 came up to Iowa to visit. And you know, I totally had not realized how much I missed either of them until they got here. I was like "...DAMN, but it's good to see you both." XD

We mostly just hung out at my apartment and tried some of the restaurants in Iowa City (the Airliner, the Hamburg Inn, and someplace even I'd never tried before, Joe's Grill). We did go out to a movie theater and see Corpse Bride though, which was really good (and a testimony to the fact that that execrable remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a momentary glitch).

I showed Advent Children to Vinnie (whose thoughts on the plot ran similar to mine). And We Love Katamari was a hit with them as well. Also, they brought up my Gamecube, so we played quite a bit of Super Smash Bros.: Melee. (And now I can pick up Tales of Symphonia in the near future, since vaulted_eel's posts have made it sound so tantalizing.) We also tried to watch part of a MST3K episode, but it was sadly unfunny (atypically for the series) so we skipped watching the rest in favor of some Greg the Bunny.

It was a really fun time, but all good things must come to an end, right? So they headed out this afternoon, and I spent several hours working with polymer clay (it's harder than you'd think) and reading voluminous academic treatises on literary theory. Bleh. I also watched an episode of Firefly - I'm trying to watch the last few episodes before Serenity comes out this weekend - and was reminded that GODDAMN THIS SHOW IS GOOD.

( And speaking of Serenity, a quiz result )

Let's Positive Linking!
- Two of the scariest things in the world are united: evangelical Christians and mimes. ph34r. (From jokersama.)
- Apparently, Akira Toriyama felt the need to put Super Saiyans into Dragon Quest VIII. XD
- Here's a new Konami game I'd heard nothing of before jokersama talked about it in her LJ: OZ (Over Zenith): Rhythmical Combination. Apparently it takes place in "a world oppressed by gods and their envoys," and features a little girl named Dorothy in distress (along with her little red demon Toto). Three main characters set out to save her, who I'm sure correspond with the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion: Feel (apparently the main character), Almira, and Leon. The "rhythmical combination" battle system seems pretty cool - basically you play catch with the enemies or something along those lines. (I hope it has support for 3P play.) I also really like the music in the first and last trailers, but that's not the thing that has me most intrigued. The last trailer shows the heroes apparently summoning the Flame Champion and Koroku from Suikoden III (at about 5:45) and Robbie the Rabbit from Silent Hill (at about 8:35). HOLY CROSSOVER BATMAN