Bruce Dickinson - The Tower

I would take my copy of Final Fantasy 2 over to my cousins' house every day after school and we would take turns playing it.  The younger of my cousins was only like four or five at the time, and he pretty much learned to read by watching us play that game.  We'd take our time and let him read a wall of text before we moved on to the next part of a conversation.  I have a feeling he was the only person in his kindergarten class who could pronounce paladin. :P

That same cousin years later named Gau BUFALO when they bought Final Fantasy 3.  I've always assumed he was going for buffalo but ran out of room.  That shit still trips me out at the thought of it.

I remember when Kim's application and review came up during a typical hiring drive.  I said "Hey, that's that girl that posts on the boards.  I like her, and she can write well.  We shall hire her."  And it was done.

...Well, that's how I remember it, anyway.

The only one I really got into was the first one I played, Tales of Destiny.  I played that one from start to finish.

I own Tales of Eternia and Tales of Symphonia, but didn't get into either one of them.

Final Fantasy 12, by a long shot.  The whole time I played Xenoblade (which admittedly wasn't too long, because it ended up boring me to tears), I couldn't help but think that I had done all this before, and done it better.  I found FF12 to be superior aesthetically, musically, and mechanically.  It was mature, it was classy, it had a sense of elegance and refinement.  Compare that with Xenoblade, which never shuts the fuck up, shouting MONADO MONADO MONADO all the time and making me feel envious of Helen Keller.

It's not that I think FF12 is some fantastic game, either.  I beat it once and haven't touched it since.  I just think Xenoblade is the most overly hyped RPG in recent memory, and I simply do not get why people adore it so.  Then again, I gave up on JRPGs quite a while ago, so I don't think it was really for me to begin with. :P

Skyrim:  A fresh install, a fresh character, and some fresh DLC.  I figured that with the introduction of crossbows, it was time to step away from my usual axe-wielding Viking archetype and do something with a bit more range.  So I made a bow using sneaky character that also uses daggers for stealth kills.  And axes for everything else.  Old habits die hard.

The DLC looks pretty interesting so far, and crossbows have a satisfying sense of weight and power.  But the guy that gave me my first one annoyed me with his "Yeah, I bet you've never seen one of these before" spiel.  I'm pretty sure they were selling them right across the border two games ago, jackass, I bet there are still some floating around.

The Cure - Fascination Street

That fucking bass, man.

Voltaire - Almost Human

I played on Jade Quarry this weekend because I spent a stupid amount of time there in my GW1 career.  But considering the color scheme of this website, a server name with a shade of green in it seems almost like fate. :P

So beta is practically over, and that's it until release.  I'm curious as to what everyone is planning to start as.

I have to say that I really like most of the races in this game (except asura, fuck those creepy midgets), but I'll be starting out as a Norn mesmer.  Norn because I have a Viking fetish, and mesmer because I like the mechanics of it.  I pretty much had to relearn the class each beta weekend because it was tampered with so much each time, but I think they finally got it right this weekend.  Scepter/torch and staff for life. \m/

Engineer will follow shortly, because that is also awesome.  I'm just not sure whether it'll be as a charr (which admittedly makes more sense) or a sylvari.

And now my plans are wrecked, because sylvari are interesting.  I thought I'd be norn all the way. :P

Friendly reminder that today is the start of the last beta weekend event.  Playable sylvari and asura.  Good times.  You should be playing.

Ys Origin:  Fought a big fucking centipede in a water themed dungeon, which makes absolutely no sense at all.  Now I'm a fire themed area.  Can't wait until the wind, earth, and heart dungeons show up.

Ys Oath:  I'm at my favorite stretch of the game, the Illburn Ruins and the lava zone after it.  My favorite because those are my favorite songs in the game back to back. :P

I guess I'm lucky.  My dream job is being a chef, and my cooking job is a hell of a lot safer than other jobs in my profession.  A hospital is far less likely to shut down than a restaurant.  I get insurance too!

Do I make a lot of money?  Fuck no.  Do I NEED a lot of money?  Not really.  I live comfortably, can pay my bills, buy good food, and have enough money at the end of the month to put away for a rainy day AND enough to fuel my hobbies.  Can't really ask for more than that.

Just gotta keep wrapping it up good to avoid getting one of those money leeches in my life. :P

Well now, Ys Origin certainly isn't what I was expecting it to be.  I feel like I'm climbing Tartarus again in Persona 3.  It's a good thing I enjoy dungeon crawlers.