Welcome

Welcome to the new (but old) random blog! This site is similar to the real random blog (www.blogo77.blogspot.com), but is far simpler. This blog is meant to represent all the posts as they were 5/15/2016. There are 80 posts in all. Otherwise this is meant to be a completely boring and useless website. Have fun!

GARDENING!

Yes for once it is time to stop, turn off our brains, and look at pictures of plants. Today's plants will plants that I have planted. Plants.

Yup. Beans, The 2 giant stalks in the back is where the giants live. Also, it's 2 sunflowers.

First off we have some garden bean plants. They are green and have sort of large leaves, relative to their shortness.

I also planted one off to the side by itself. I like to think t's some sort of renegade, fleeing from society.

I also planted another crop of beans in another space, but they didn't do so well

Ignore the shadow. Please. Also, the one in the middle is the sole survivor. The others all got eaten by snails.

I also planted a habanero plant, but it is basically on life support at this stage.

It's worse than it looks.  I think.

Also radishes.

I also spilled seed on the lawn and they have grown there. Success?

And after all these, what is the lesson to be left with? That I am a somewhat mediocre gardener? Perhaps. But maybe, just maybe, this shows that even those of us that have absolutely no skill with anything involving living beings, that even those people can sometimes grow beans. Truly, what is more profound then that?

Mystery Story Teaser

Another day, another story. (This means in no way that I am posting a story a day DON"T HOLD ME TO THAT! also, I called this a teaser because I was to lazy to create "chapters". Oh and yes, the name Jael IS a reference to the book of judges. Foreshadowing.)

“It’s suicide, they’re saying.”

I sighed.

“Same basic piece then. Guess I’ll schedule an appointment with the family. I should have the piece done by next week.” I said.

“Sounds good, Jael. That’s all for now.”

“OK. See you later boss.” I responded.

I had been working for the school paper for about a year. Nothing too interesting, just trying to get something to put a resume really. School wasn’t big enough to have any large controversies, but there was usually something interesting every now and again. I’d written a couple pieces about students who had committed suicide. It was so odd at first, It’s not something you really think you ought to really talk about. Meeting with the family is going to be hard, but I can at least take solace that I won’t have to ask any of the real hard questions. A basic sort of positive “he was a good kid” message would suffice.

A week rolled by fast, as they seemingly always do.I set up an appointment with the family. Standard stuff, but there was something odd the father said.

“I can’t believe they went ahead and just said it was suicide, there’s no way-” He was then interrupted by the mother, and then just sighed.

I can understand denial, given the circumstances, but this was less of a “I never saw this coming” and more of a “They were wrong, she didn’t kill herself.” I didn’t give it too much heed at the time.

That was, until, about a week ago.

“Another suicide.” The boss said dryly.

“Fair enough. I’ll schedule a meeting with the family then.” I responded.

“There seems to be happening  more and more. Last month and now this. I’m sorry to give you both of these articles, but-”

“It’s fine. I can handle some grieving families.” I replied.

“You know I heard this girl was friends with the other girl, you know, the one died last month.” The boss stated “I wonder if they’re related somehow.”

“C’mon boss. Don’t go filling your journalist’s mind with ideas.” I replied. I might seem rude, but the boss was always like this. Spreading rumours, getting in deep with the tabloid style “muckraking”. It was shameful, in my opinion. He wasn’t really a journalist, just an english teacher with some free time.

“Gotcha. That’s it for today then.” The boss said.

As always, I scheduled an appointment with the family. I couldn’t resist my own curiosity and i looked up detail about the suicide. It was true, the means of death were almost the same. Each time, it was from a stab to the torso by a sharp blade. Even if the two were the same, the strangest part was the method. Who kills themselves with a blade in modern times? Both of them also had various cuts on their arms, also self inflicted. I had to admit, it was  a strange coincidence.

Then I spoke with the victim’s family.

I didn't think much of it, going in. Didn't matter too much who the family were. But this family was different. This family was mad. I'd gotten to this family pretty quickly, perhaps a sign of how regular this got for me, and it showed. The family hadn't really been taught about how to talk to the press. They didn’t hold back.

“ It's obvious, I think” The mother stated angrily “ It was not a suicide!”.

I leaned back in my seat, with an obvious look of discomfort.

“Uhh…” I muttered, trying to say something coherent. The father patted his wife’s arm.

“Now now, the journalist doesn’t need to hear all that.” The father said calmly.

The mother mumbled something and shrugged.

“All right. I don’t know what else I can say about what happened.” The mother replied harshly.

“Um, well..” And that’s when my curiosity got the better of me, i’m afraid.

“You know, I might just agree with you. It just seems fishy to me. If you help me by saying you aren’t satisfied with what the police have said on the matter, we can hopefully get more eyes on the case.” I said, my own journalistic passion outweighing my common sense.

“What? You would actually publish that?” The father asked.

“My boss would jump at the opportunity.” I said.

It was the truth. He would almost certainly be overjoyed at such an article arriving in his lap.He had shown in the ast no hesitation when delving into the realm of controversy.

“yes.” The mother replied “that’s the thing we should do. we can’t let this just linger into obscurity!”

The fish had been caught. After the interview I set off right away to write up an article. It criticised the police’s lack of suspicion in the case, so quickly calling it a suicide. I then called on the dean to place restrictions on night classes. Both the students had died shortly after a night class. This way, I thought, if there was a killer, he would thrown off guard by these changes. Maybe then he would get desperate enough to lead clues to his identity. I was already getting caught up in theories and speculation. I was becoming everything I had days previously mocked.

Taking the article to my boss was interesting He seemed hesitant, asking if I was sure I wanted to publish the article. “Why now do fear controversy” I thought to myself. Either way, he eventually agreed to publish it, and it went up in next week's paper. The reaction was far more intense than I suggested.

On tuesday, as I was walking to class, I saw a large group congregated by the entrance to the administration building. It was a protest group,saying that the campus either should shut down and heavily increase security. It seemed the article hit home. Far too proud of my own actions, I marched to class oblivious of what consequences my actions may have had.

It seemed the administration wouldn’t falter from their plans, and thus made no changes. The principal came out in defense of his actions, saying “we stand by the police’s verdict. If they say it was a suicide, we have no reason to act as if it were otherwise.”

Frustrated, I went to work making more articles calling for change. I had gone full on sensationalism, using whatever argument I could. I was hooked, each of my articles had fantastic reactions. People were actually reading my articles in the dinky old school newspaper.

It was crushing then, to find out the principal read the articles too. He went ahead and forced my boss to stop publishing any articles I created. There went my power, gone as quickly as it came. In my stead, more school-friendly articles started to appear. The protests died down. In my incalculable stupidity, I decided to talk to the principal myself. However, I was too timid to go right up to him and blurt out my opinions, so I sent an email.

I never even got a response. I was so frustrated, I might have done something even more foolish, but then It happened.

Seemingly like clockwork, after the same interim of time, another killing occurred.

“Ha!” I thought “I am vindicated! they can’t put off calling t o murder any longer!” I had become so wrapped up in my own pettiness, that even the prospect of a cold blooded murder, so long as it was beneficial to me, seemed a positive thing. I had no grief, no pity. I was no longer human.

So spiteful was I, I went, newspaper in hand, right up to the newspaper office.

“Ha! How do you feel about that!” I Shouted.

‘I think it’s very sad and horrifying.” The boss said.

“What? No, I mean, I was right! It was a murder the whole time!” I replied with bravado.

“OK. And?” The boss replied.

“well…” I muttered “Don’t you feel guilty for kicking me off the paper? It could have been prevented if people listened to me.”

“It wasn’t my choice. It was you or the whole paper.” The boss replied.

Blog Update 5/11

Yes, I changed the background. The hexagons got old. Now would be the time to protest if you hate the new style. As for the future, I dunno, stuff's gonna happen. The end.

Sega 3D Classics Collection Review

Power Drift: This game, while not really a "classic" is certainly fun, and interesting in how it presents its pseudo-3d tracks. It's really an interesting looking game, with plenty of variation and verticality in its track design. At the same time, the extreme speed combined with moving through a 3D area on sprites and with hazards also being sprites, the hit detection is really strange at times. Prepare to fall through bridges you appeared to be mostly on and slide through trees you directly drive into.



Altered Beast: I hate altered beast, and as such could not bring myself to play it for this review. Do note that this is the arcade version, however.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Nothing really needs to be said about Sonic 1, but I'll do it anyway. It's a game that is definitely overshadowed by its sequels, but it's a nice addition to the collection.

Thunder Blade: I am immensely grateful this is the arcade version, and not "Super Thunder Blade" for the genesis(or even worse, the port for the master system). It is a devilishly difficult game, complete with one hit deaths. Luckily for yours truly, there are multiple difficulty settings. It being called a classic is still... subjective, but i had fun playing it. After beating it you unlock another mode that I really don't understand how it works. :\

Galaxy Force 2: Also glad it is isn't the genesis version. The easiest parallel to make would be with Star Fox, but entirely sprite based. However, I feel the game loses some charm by being entirely first person. All in all, it's really only OK in my opinion. That said, it is definitely one of the most graphically complex games in the pack.

Puyo Puyo 2: The fact it isn't fully translated is an annoyance, but the game is still very playable. However, I am truly terrible at it, so I really can't judge anything beyond the very surface elements. Everything I did see seemed pretty good for what I expect a puyo puyo game to do. I don't think the 3D adds much of anything though.

Fantasy Zone II W: Strange name, mostly same game. It's an arcade version of Fantasy Zone II on the Master system. It's also much harder. I'm terrible at it...

Bonus Games:

Maze Walker: No.

Fantasy Zone II: I like Fantasy Zone 2, but I'll admit I'm not that good at it. Very often enemies come at you from angles you can rarely shoot back at, making surviving difficult. Despite having an actual health bar, I find it more difficult than Fantasy Zone (the first one).

SUPER SECRET WHY IS IT SO HIDDEN GAME:

Fantasy Zone: Man, this game is great. It's easier than II, and a lot simpler. It won't blow your mind, but I liked it. One thing to note is that in the collection all the fantasy zone games add in an optional radar, which I found immensely helpful. Also, the ending to this game is amazing.

The collection itself: The 3D is well done, sometimes including options for it to pop out and push in to the screen. Usually every game has options for region, difficulty, and many more things. It really felt like M2 spent time looking over every aspect of these games in terms of their emulation. This is truly high class stuff. I honestly feel like these are some of the best versions of these games you can get, aside from playing on original hardware.

The quagmire of portables.

Alright, I realize this is a bit different (see: the random in the title), but this is something I've been thinking about for the last couple of months. It might seem odd and over dramatic to the outsider, but I think it is semi-safe to say portables (as in portable game systems) are dying.

Some history is required. Sales numbers have seemingly peaked in the 7th console generation, the generation dominated by the DS and PSP. the combined sales for the 2 is around 223 Million units for all models. Contrast this with the current 8th generation, dominated by the 3DS and PS Vita. Those sales come out to around 70 million units for all models. Certainly, you could argue this is due to the generation not being over, but even at this time, there is a huge gap in sales.



So, why is this happening? The common theory is of course that smartphones/tablets are taking out the "casual" market that was traditionally a consumer of such portables. Again, this argument was also used to declare that the previous console generation would be the last, and that was proven to be completely untrue. However, the numbers don't lie, an I feel like the damage has been obvious. So the real question is why have the portables been decimated, while consoles have been not.

This is where my point comes in. In my opinion, portables have and will continue to be spurned by "core" demographics. As much as it surprised me to find out, as time has gone on, I've seen more and more people who either reject portables as being completely inferior, or simply don't enjoy using them. THIS, is what will truly kill off the market. This is the place the portable market finds itself stuck in. It's too "core" or one-purpose for the casual market, and too casual for the core market.

I say all this not to mourn about lost times, but to in a way stake my claim in explaining why this has been happening.  This could all be proven false later on, but as for now, this is the best explanation I have. The NX, if that is actually going to be a successor to the 3DS as seemingly no one on the Internet believes it to be, it could prove me wrong by being an immense success, But I doubt it. Oh, and there is no way there is a successor to the vita, at least as far as the US market is concerned. As much as I may have liked it, it really hasn't done well in the US.

-A distinct difference to all this is Japan. In Japan portables still are dominant, but... I really have no idea the exact reasons why and how that has came to be, aside from the obvious fact that portables are perceived quite differently in Japan.

- All in all, I no longer remember what that point of this article even is anymore.

2016!

Woooooow.... I left this blog dead for a LONG time... I was planning on doing this big article, but it never really came together... So here this blog remains... Eh. As a consolation, have some haikus:

Night of the third day,

All who lived cowered in fear

For what was to come

Only in the end

Too few of us realized

It was our own fault

So cower and hide

No pity will be given

Your guilt, your lone gift.

Yup, Majora's Mask-related haikus don't really make sense as a "gift". Eh. As for the future, I'll try to post SOMETHING in the next month. No promises.