Not just another NPC - (ds-x2 ver.)

I have soooo much to blog about. A few times I tried to blog last week, but I either got distracted or was pulled away from my computer while writing. So I’m starting fresh today to write about what’s been happening lately and holy shit has a lot happened.

Beginning with the days before graduation, I went on an all-out blitz to complete Earthbound before graduation. For about 2 and a half days I did nothing but play Earthbound… well, I also ate and slept. Point is I played a shit load of earthbound to where I was going a bit crazy. In fact I’ve been having some crazy dreams that I can’t seem to elaborate on. Trust me though, they’re crazy. Sadly I didn’t finish Earthbound before graduation, the last part of the game was hanging me up. More specifically those f^cking Nuclear Reactor Robots spawning everywhere.

After the graduation ceremony I went to Lucille’s which is one of those generic BBQ places with lots of random crap on the walls. However not only is their food better than the average - generic BBQ place with lots of random crap on the walls - but they had a badass blues cover band playing live with a band member whose middle name was actually “guitar”. I kid you not.

When I got home I received a call from my friend Tyler who said I should come over and “party” with him and his friend. I use quotes on “party” because our ideal party is one with lots of video games, soda, and various chips(likely Doritos). It was here that whilst (ironically) not paying attention and stuffing my face with Doritos that I got around to the last part of Earthbound up to the final boss. Then I beat the insane last boss and finished the game in complete awe. Tyler then remembered he had to work early that very morning so I ended up walking home at 5AM. I kinda felt like a zombie… who needed to brush his teeth.

The next day I went to a few other “parties” which was sort of surreal. I was really tired so that probably had something to do with it.

Couple days later I got everything sorted out with Sierra College… I’ll spare you the details, but it was really complicated. I’m just glad I’ve got classes to take coming this fall.

Bought a microphone(more on that here), stand, and some Midi cables. What do I need midi cables for? For my… wait for it… keyboard! Yes that “surprise” item I bought during the mega-garage sale event a couple weeks ago was a 48-key keyboard. A complete steal for 22 bucks though it required dragging home a mile and a half or so. Heck, that wouldn’t have been so bad if I didn’t have my bike to drag along as well. That was awkward - but so worth it. With midi I can make it sound like any synthesizer I can emulate on my computer. Now I have to teach myself Piano… I have some books on it somewhere.

Last Saturday I got a car. Yep a car. I’ll make a post about it later or something it’s too ugly to take pictures of now(getting detailed soon). My uncle really trashed it.

aaaand so that’s basically what I’ve been up to.

Just for the hell of it, here’s this:

Lack of updates you say? Well, I have good reason: I just finished wrapping up High school! Woo!
…
It’s been a wild ride. Lots of memories from the last twelve years of public education. Lots of… horrible memories. Oh ok, and some good ones…

But mostly bad ones.
(I might reflect more on that after I have my graduation ceremony later this week)

Within the last days of school I finished filming my broadcasting project(not actually finished on the last day, as the schedule was really wonky). Now I just need something to import it and edit it all with. However I did manage to take some random pictures here and there with the video cameras since pictures can be directly saved onto my SD card instead of the archaic miniDV tape. I’ve even uploaded some of the pictures to my flickr account.(in 16:9!)

I would buy a miniDV camera or something, but I’ve been strapped for cash since last year. I bought the turntable using money I had in my bank account which I usually never do. I consider withdrawing a bad habit so up until then I had never actually withdrawn money from my bank account and don’t plan on doing it again until I get a job.

Speaking of looking for a job I have been searching for one since April or so - with no luck. Now that school is over though I’m going to be a bit more aggressive with the whole thing. It’s not going to be easy with this economy. There are probably plenty of experienced people out of work looking for any job they can get their hands on.

Progress on Earthbound is slow but steady. I’ve been playing it almost 2 and a half hours each day with the exception of this weekend and Monday so far. When I was in the town of Threed I contemplated making a blog post as if I were right there with the zombies or something:

Hey it’s NPC here vacationing early in the town of Threed! Zombies seem to have invaded the town before I arrived - and after my travel agent sold me this vacation package. Every now and then I have to smash a zombie with a baseball bat to protect myself. In short, the nightlife here is dead…. or would that be un-dead?

Yea I just think Zombies in general are funny. Ever since I saw Peter Jackson’s “Braindead” I’ve been pretty much desensitized to all horror films.

Yet Metroid Prime still freaks me the fuck out.

Last but not least I promised I would post up my first turntable mix if I thought it was “decent” and sure enough I have one which qualifies. I can’t link the thread I made on the DJforums because it’s blocked to non-members, but I reposted it all at inanity. Complete with a screenshot of the comments left at the DJforums which I find inspiring. I must add the music I use isn’t for everyone. Which reminds me, I actually drove a person in broadcasting crazy with my music one day. That is actually what sparked the idea to start filming the type of project that I made… unfortunately he didn’t flip out again despite my best efforts.

Another week, another pair of retro headphones.

Better picture here

This time it was by complete coincidence. Last Saturday there was a mega-garage-sale event in my part of town - basically a bunch of people sold crap in front of their homes simultaneously - and I originally planned to take this time to hunt for some records. Well that didn’t go so well, but I did find these awesome headphones for the irresistible price of $1.75. After some cleaning(these things still smell like the 70s) and some research googling, I learned these cans are actually quite collectible. This thread here at head-fi.org explains the details of why these headphones are somewhat desirable. Basically, these are practically the first headphones to have full rage of sound: high and low frequency response. Plus they look hella tight.

I bought one other thing from a garage sale, but I’m keeping that a secret until I’m fully ready to reveal it. Hint: I need some midi cables.

Besides some last minute school work not much else is going on. I have been playing Earthbound for about an hour a day though. Classic RPGs are hard to sit through these days…

Oh and I have a very ambitious(more so than a game review) broadcasting project in the works. Sadly, filming will commence up until the very last day of school so I’m going to have to figure out a way to import it all and edit it outside of broadcasting class. Perhaps my friends could help me with this. I don’t know, we’ll see.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve been busy with school(as usual), a certain new hobby of mine, and playing super smash brothers in broadcasting class….

(I’m Ness -P4)

Yea… I have broadcasting in the morning(8AM-ish) so I wasn’t exactly on top of my game.

Not sure what I’m going to do with the other footage I recorded, a good video review would require a good deal of game footage and editing. No one likes bad video reviews, those are the worst. More footage however requires lugging around my Wii. Don’t let that small size fool you, the Wii is heavier than it looks. Or maybe it’s the power brick, cables, and controllers in tandem with the Wii that weigh me down. Another problem is I can’t say no to a good multiplayer Brawl once I have it all set up. Especially when people start bringing their own controllers. I still have a good 5 min of game footage, menus, and whatnot. Maybe I’ll film myself without the wii and just talk. Then do some editing here and there with game footage weaving in and out. We’ll see where this goes, I may bring in the Wii covertly after a week or so. After all it may be my final project so why not put lots of effort into it?

Ok, if you’ve read the second sentence of this post you’re probably wondering what my new hobby is…

Yes I bought myself a turntable (Technics sl-1200M3D) and mixer (Stanton RM-3s). I bought the mixer a day or two after the turntable when I learned playing back a turntable without an amp or mixer (has preamp and ground connection built in) is useless. The guy who sold me the turntable (Zach) was cool though. Turns out he runs an internet radio station called XTCRadio. Cool dude, gave me a great deal. This also marks the first time I’ve ventured into Sacramento alone. Let me just say google maps is your friend. The guy who sold me the mixer was much more local (here in Rocklin) and much less competent. Which is to be expected from Rocklin. Sure he was nice, but he almost sold me the mixer without a power cord… and he had raiders posters… and an SUV (explorer) with chrome rims(or should I say rimz). Then he told me: “hopefully you’ll have better luck with spinning than I did, I gave up after five hours“. I’m like: “wat“. Especially since he told me he bought everything new. Great deal on my end, getting new equipment for the price of used is awesome.

I need some more vinyl and cables before I can record anything, but when I do I will post it! Or maybe the one after that, it depends. I think I’ve got the basics, it just needs lot of refining to make a “smooth” mix.

I woke up last Sunday totally oblivious to any game-happenings as I’ve been for the last couple of weeks in an effort to focus on school. Then later on my mom asks me to drive her to Target and I’m thinking: “Hm… wasn’t there something I wanted to buy soon-ish?” Then it hit me!

Though honestly I didn’t expect to just leisurely walk right in at 2PM on day one and buy a copy of the biggest Wii release of the year. No, just like Advance Wars: DOR I lacked a pre-order and chances were slim. I merely got lucky with Advance wars, surely I wouldn’t be able to repeat such luck. Then again I seem to be pretty good at this and sure enough they had two copies left. Woot! But I wasn’t going to open it… no it was going to be a work incentive instead.

Unfortunately I am one of the few amongst my group of friends with a Wii. Yea… so I get this during school:

“Hey man lets go to your house after school and play brawl! We can pick up lunch on our way too! My treat!”

“Hey can I come over to your house after school and play brawl?”

“Lets go to your house and play brawl after school! I’ll even drive you… but you’ll have to tell me where to go since I don’t exactly know where you live…”

Well, at least I had fun. Many people complain the pace has slowed down too much, but with a couple of hours one can easily adjust. Overall the game is worthy of being called a sequel to SSB: Melee and I don’t see myself going back anytime soon. For some of us though, fond memories of Melee may be hard to ignore. I guess you could say Brawl takes a bit of an open mind to fully enjoy. That seems to be a trend with Nintendo lately.

Now for something completely unrelated…

Best Buy is a terrible store, they overcharge for everything. One of my grandparents though keeps giving me Best Buy gift cards and I can’t really complain. It’s very thoughtful and I have to give her (grandma) credit for trying to give me a gift appealing to my technology-flavored tastes. Long story short I find myself in best buy looking at speakers and I know what to look for. Sort of. I try to stay away from generic-self-powered-speakers. I figure if I can’t do that then I try to go with a good brand I can trust. Well thanks to the best buy gift card I broke both of those rules easily. Yes, this was an impulse buy! Ironically(?) it matches up with my other impulse buy from last year! Yep, I have had that EMU-1212m for about a 9 months now. Sitting here hooked up to nothing but my lousy headphones. I figured it’s time to let this baby sing with some proper speakers!

I had never heard of this brand “klipsch”… but I’m happy with them.

Oh man these speakers rock! Even better than the Bose speakers my parents have set up in our “entertainment center” downstairs. They probably paid a lot more for those back in the day too. It took me awhile to find room for the sub-woofer - it’s bigger than it looks. Or maybe it’s just heavier than it looks because it’s made out of MDF. Which - funny fact - is the same material many North American arcade cabinets are made out of… and it’s fucking heavy.

This upcoming week is the end of 3rd quarter for my high school. The pressure’s on! Wish me luck…

Quick update! (still busy/slacking off/playing games/saving the “world” )

14th -Valitines day was a boring but interesting day of reflection.

18th -GDC came and is uneventful to me so far. Playing is believing though. *shrug*

19th -Took a Sierra College assessment(English/math) and felt very ill about 5 minuets in. Couldn’t focus and started guessing on some problems I would normally take the time to solve. Somehow still got normal results - perhaps better than my sister. haha!

Nick: 1
Logic: 400082

20th -Turned 18! Woo!(meh) Went to the doctor as well. He took me off my acne medication finally.

21st -Feeling much better without that medication crap. Unfortunately I have lots of work.

Oh and this set is simply kick-ass. Best headphones EVER. Didn’t think there was an RJ-11 to 1/4″ plug out there.

Whoops, did I say I was going to write another entry on Wednesday? I meant Thursday. Because Wednesdays almost always suck. You can’t argue with that logic… *ahem…

Actually, school is kicking into overdrive so I have no time for blogging or other web-related shenanigans… well except for right now.
Times up!
…Nah just kidding.

Gaming is on the back-burner as well. Advance wars has been in stand-by mode for about four or five days now, and still going strong! Who knows when I’ll get back to it. Maybe if I finish this blog post fast enough… hm.

Two weeks from now my school will be - basically - adding a 30min class to my schedule. I say “basically” because it’s actually pretty complicated and some days I may even get out of school earlier than I already do. But given this is me I’ll be stuck staying that extra thirty minuets that is (what they call) the “plus period”. If you click that link you’ll witness some Rocklin High school web designing at its finest. Who knows though, maybe I could turn this time into something productive.

Good’ol Fabrice Lig(AKA: Soul Designer), who I talked to briefly before I jumped off the Myspace bandwagon, has uploaded some short and sweet videos of Standard 9. Which is something Ken Ishii’s website for Standard has yet to do(and I doubt ever will at this rate). Check these out if you like techno!

Edit: BTW I titled one of my previous posts “rapping up jan08″ - and I forgot the w!(w-rapping) Talk about embarrassing!

Still a couple hours until the new year and I just want to make one last post. Starting with that flickr album I’ve been meaning to start. The first picture I uploaded was of today’s sunset since it’s the last sunset of the year. Taken on top of one of the many hills in Rocklin(more specifically for locals: “backside” Park Dr. by the Water tank).

I rode my bike thinking I could use the exercise, but wow it got hella cold after I took that photo.

I plan to upload more later. I seemed to have gotten into taking pictures for the blog this year for some reason. I think I’ll get my own camera sometime this year(er… next year).

Sometime in the past - maybe last year, or the year before I can’t remember - my good friend Tyler and I celebrated the new year together playing games all night into the wee hours of the morning. It was fun, but this year he wanted to celebrate it with his Girlfriend(I don’t blame him). So Saturday(I think… man I’ve lost sense of time thanks to this break) he invited me over to play some games. I didn’t stay over too long since it wasn’t a planned sleep-over like before but we played a good variety of games. Everything we played on the 360 somehow seemed too dull for that evening. It could’ve been the size of the TV, plus the split screen. Or maybe it was that every game we played was either not my type of game, or not his type of game. We needed some variety, or more importantly something we could evenly compete in. I ran back home and threw the Dreamcast in a back-back and ran drove back. Ah, now the Dreamcast is quality entertainment. Soul Caliber saved the day, so did some other off-beat games like Tech-romancer, and Ikaruga. An acquaintance from school and I discuss and joke about Ikaruga a lot in front of Tyler. He had never played it before so I showed it to him and… um… blew his mind. The thing about Ikaruga is that it isn’t based on reflex more than it is knowing what is simply going to happen next. Probably should have stepped him through it more. Now that I think of it we didn’t even give two player mode a chance, that would’ve been ideal for teaching him the ropes. Or at least as much as I know about the game, there are people out there that play Ikaruga in ways far beyond my capabilities.

Good times were had, so I have no regrets sitting at home this New years eve.

One thing I forgot to mention the other week was this Dutch Electronica blog I stumbled across a couple weeks ago. Yea, I can’t read it worth crap. But every now and then they post a set from a DJ I recognize and it’s good stuff! Reminds me of a typical Gawker blog. So hey, if you run out of things to listen to go check’em out.

Speaking of electronic music, I stumbled upon a Roland Tr-909(drum machine) emulator for my DS. It’s quite awesome, I’ve been playing around with it on and off today and I love how hands-on it is compared to something on a computer. Now I just need a synthesizer and I could compose something of my own.
Ha- no. But it is fun.

Happy new year!

Christmas is over, but the fun has just begun! Still a week and a half left of nothing but messing around with what I’ve received. Got my graphics card back today too so I’m ready to do anything! Orange box here I come! Oh but let me total up what I’ve hauled in so far.

I was right on the money with the Wii. Finally in “next gen”… but I lack games. I plan to go out and buy Mario Galaxy today as soon as I’m done posting this. I was at Target the other day exchanging an extra nunchuck controller my mom had bought, then reminded myself to go buy a Wii points card and classic controller. Saving my Bestbuy gift card for game purchases in case you’re wondering. I own a lot of classic games, and “own” even more of them (that I play with an emulator). Sin and Punishment is pretty much the only reason I bought a points card. It isn’t emulated 100% anywhere else except on the Wii and I think it’s a great game to actually own. That and Blazing Lazers since I could never find(or figure out) a Turbo Graphics16 emulator for my PC. I kind of regret it, it’s not as good as I thought it would be. Even for a late 80s game I think Cho-ren-sha is much more impressive. Not to mention this now leaves me with a useless 200 Wii-points. WTF? Oh well, I’ll put it towards Wii-ware titles.

Another major gift(in my book) is a cell phone! Woo!
Unfortunately it’s very limited in terms of applications(damn you Verizon), but it plays music(yay!), with 2GB of internal memory accessed by a USB cable(yay!), and… sigh… output through a 2.5mm jack(what?!). Yep, same miniature “jack” my calculator uses to talk to other calculators. It’s weird, it’s small, and I don’t like the headphones earbuds(even worse) it came with. If it exists, I’ll buy the adapter. It has a nice long-lasting rechargeable battery at least.

Ok maybe I won’t total up everything I got.

Just one more thing.

Tis awesome. I got the “European version” apparently because it has an extra track on the main CD, and came with the first Disc of Ken Ishii’s Play, Pause, and Play. Which is awesome. Especially since it has my favorite track from Joris Voorn “Incident”.
Ah, some great driving music.

I hate it when someone says “oh snap”, it’s like they’re trying to be cool and at the same time conform by not say anything offensive. Just say “oh shit” people, it’s not that hard and no one really cares except for maybe the school principle himself. Well I used it as my title for this week’s blog entry simply because it’s a nice play on words with the latest in the world of NPC.

Rewind to friday when I was minding my own business, with my computer practically idle when I suddenly heard a loud “SNAP”. First thought was: Blown capacitors! Second thought: Sound card! Third thought: FUUUUUUUUCK! Forth thought: Turn it off!

After inspection it was indeed a blown capacitor, but not my sound card. No instead it was my graphics card. *whew*
…
*thinks about that for a moment*
…
FUUUUCK!

Luckily it is still under the standard RMA with Newegg. Just by a couple of weeks. Not 100% sure what caused it, but lets just say I know how I might be able to prevent anything from happening to my replacement. The wait is going to kill me, I’ve got a couple files I need for school. I’m going to have to take out the Hard drive and copy them to another computer(you know how many times I’ve done that this year?). Currently using my dad’s Celeron-based computer running win2000, it may be my main computer for the week.

At the very least, I’ve figured how to gain access to most of my music without actually having my computer on. Just go to last.fm–>listen–>select username–>type and search NPC82. Or i could just embed it.

Edit to DS-X2 readers: I can’t seem to get the embedding to work here, I probably need some wordpress plugins or something. sorry.

I’m always surprised at the collection of music available with last.fm radio. Only downside is that buffering sucks sometimes.