Kathy Lin

Wii wii wii wii wii.

I own a Wii!! Please leave me a message. You won’t be hearing from me in a while. Chris has one too but that’s her Christmas present. She already knows because she had to buy it for me (limit one per customer). That’s ok though. We can play mine now. :)

YAY!

Let the madness begin! More updates to follow, I’m sure. So far, the game has been really enjoyable. I tried taking on the dinosaur and mutant wolf (Tellstra?) by myself, which maybe wasn’t the wisest thing to do. The dinosaur attacked once for ~650 damage which pretty much killed me 5 times over. I was doing pretty well with the wolf until it called more wolves.

Anyway, my only complaint about the game so far is the sound that plays when something is near. An exclamation point is displayed about your head, and at the same time a noise is heard. However, the action can’t actually be done (opening a chest, moving a switch) until you move a little bit closer to what caused the exclamation point to appear. Many times I’ve heard the noise and just pressed X by reflex, only to open the Battle Menu.

But, that’s a small gripe compared to a game that’s been great so far! The graphics and storyline can only be described as a Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings hybrid. There are fantastic airships that sort of look like sailing ships but fire laser cannons, etc. But on the ground, the forces fight mainly with armor and Middle Ages type weapons: swords, maces, bows, staves, etc. Personally, I’m ok with that. Leveling up a blaster feels different than leveling up a sword or bow.

Few more observerations: Square Enix seems to have changed the names of the spells slightly (yet again) and the enemies no longer drop gil (or gold/gp if you’re old school). They drop loot, which you can chose to sell. I haven’t yet encountered a use for most items so I have sold them. It would be a real pain in the ass if later the only way to upgrade to Ultima Weapon or something similar would be to have 99 of some item.

Recently I received free tickets to see Deathcab for Cutie from my friend and co-worker Joe, who is off in Mozambique/South Africa right now (on Uncle Booz’s dime no less!). I never managed to go to this “emo lovefest” because Aaron and I were dumb enough not to look at the actual date of the concert.

I just assumed that there was only one show, and Aaron just assumed that the tickets I got for free were for the same night he was planning on getting them. Well, you know what they say about assumptions.

Here are a few other things that added insult to injury:

1. It was raining.
2. There was traffic all the way to DC because it was raining.
3. It was cold.
4. It was in Constitution Hall, which meant parking was nonexistant. We drove around for ~30 min looking for parking, and finally found a metered spot 8 blocks away. While we were examining the parking rules, a ‘homeless’ man asked Aaron for change. Aaron gave him 75 cents.

Aaron and I didn’t notice the date until after we had walked ALL the way to Constitution Hall (in the rain). I actually managed to show my ticket, get the barcode scanned, and walk inside the lobby before Aaron called me back because he was stopped at the door. Let’s just say I was shocked. Then depressed. Then whiny.

To not make the night a total bust I then decided to go to the grocery store to get some milk so I would at least have something to eat for breakfast today. Well, my Safeway didn’t have the milk I always get (Silk Light Plain!!). It just wasn’t my night. :P

I hope everyone remembered to vote yesterday.  Matt (roommate) did not agree that getting the “I Voted” sticker was the best part, but I thought it was.  Once again I voted in Herndon Middle School which is about 2 blocks from my house.  No lines, which was really nice.

The exciting thing about voting this year is Virginia is one of the “too close to call” Senate races.  Things have really been going downhill for George Allen since his macaca slip, so let’s hope it stays that way. :)  Jim Webb declared himself the winner last night, but Allen hasn’t given in, and we’ve all see this before (Florida?).  Virginia may go to a recount.  Go read the papers to find out the latest because I certainly am not good at updating this site!!