...you know except maybe with strange eons.

A lot of people after having been absent online will open with "I'm not dead yet..." However, I died a long time ago, I've just been waiting for a zombie slayer badass enough to take me down.

So anyway, this is what I've been busy with lately.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/transcending-history

I started GMing a Star Wars campaign recently and I think it's been going pretty well. We have a rather eclectic group of loosely associated rebels on the path of something very strange. At first I wasn't sure I'd really use this obsidian portal website all that much, but after playing around with it a few days I'm completely hooked. I like being able to have an adventure log/wiki for my players to be able to go back to in order to review what happened from session to session. Being able to put more info about my NPCs is also pretty sweet as they all generally have more going on for them than what may have been revealed in game. There have been other games I've run that years later a friend will bring up a story from and I realize I'd completely forgotten about it, hopefully this will let me keep better track of all those crazy gaming stories.

Also it turns out that buying the psp may have been a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice little system and all. It's just the game selection that's making me rethink why did I buy this. As it turns out besides Silent Hill Origins there really aren't any survival horror games for the psp. Even DS has a bigger selection of horror than psp. So I'm really having to scrap the bottom of the gaming barrel to find stuff I want to buy and play on it. Here's to hoping capcom makes good on their promise of an exclusive psp Resident Evil so I can justify the $120.

I've done a terrible thing. I mean, everyone has a price right? Eventually I knew this would happen. You just have to swallow your pride sometimes and give in. I only have so much willpower, I fought this as long as I could. It's just...it's been over a year, and I really needed this. The money was just too good.

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Slimline PSP 2000 for $120 from Dell, shipping included. I'll hate myself later.

It's so good to be back home. Fuck, I'm tired.

Dominic Deegan panel was all kinds of awesome. Mookie was incredibly funny and had amazing energy. He made some very good points about charcters too. I just bought lots of dice today. Saw my brother again and look forward to maybe just staying with him next year. So exhausted...

Attended a Gore/makeup fx panel by Samantha Inoue-Hart and she has to be the coolest Makeup artist in the business. It was both informative and highly entertaining. I also blew my so called 'budget' for the day, but that was to be expected. Also didn't realize my brother lived so close to Dallas. We got together for dinner and had a lot of fun catching up as we hadn't seen each other in a couple of years.

Too much cool stuff to buy and not nearly enough money to get it all. *sigh*

12 hours of driving but we made it in time to register for the con tonight instead of having to wade through the endless lines tomorrow. It's nice that at 8pm no one was really trying to register but us so it was in and out and then into the hotel.

Bed is nice, bed is not car. I sleep now!

Heading off to A-Kon down in Dallas this weekend. Didn't hit any real anime cons last year so I'm really looking forward to this one. The trip will be long and horrible, but at least I have DS/GBASP, mp3 player, and books.

I remember the madness, it began with a great and terrible noise. You know that sound you hear when something is trying to tear it's way into our world? That's what I heard. When I looked over I saw a shadowy form. Just an outline really, of something that should not exist. Something in me just knew, that this was the creature that slumbers under the mountain.

Not since I was a child had I ever known such fear. I wanted to run, but that was impossible. It's as though Its tendrils burrowed deep under my skin and held me by my insides. It spoke to me, not in words but feelings, emotions, and visions. It wanted just a bit of my soul, and in return It offered me a bit of power. Fool that I was at the time, I agreed.

Despite the madness that followed, I continued to serve that creature under the mountain. All the while giving It the pieces of me I thought I didn't need for more and more power. As I became Its slave it became apparent to me I would be forever bound to It. Before that could happen I had a brief moment of lucidity.

Stretching the threads of Its influence as much as I dared, I ran. I found a place where Its gaze could not penetrate. I took a part of what soul I had left, the smallest part, and I bound it elsewhere. I bound it in such a manner that even if It should stumble upon that last part of my soul, It could do nothing.

As of late I can feel the creature stirring. M Mountain is restless with fitful throws. Today, for the first time ever, It manifested before me. Not Its shadow, not Its outline, but Its true form. To see it at last in Its full horror brought me to my knees and I could not stand to look at It directly. It looked deep within me however, and at last saw what I had done all those years ago. It knows now It can never fully control me, not so long as that piece of me remains safe.

Even so, for my defiance, It made me pay dearly today. The pain will not soon be forgotten and the scars will be a constant reminder of our dark contract. So long as that part of me remains though, I can endure. So long as I endure, Its horrors shall not threaten this town.

My second most hated of enemies is here in town! If only I could find out where so I could go kick him square in the balls. Damn you Bobbie Flay!!! You can't hide from me forever!

So the other night scorpy and I are walking through the cemetery. It was a little after midnight and the moon was beautiful, perfect night for a cemetery walk. It's a bit windy so things are creaking, adding to the atmosphere of the night. We get to this one black monolith of a tombstone with white writing and she stares at it a bit. It's got quite a bit of text for a tombstone.

As she starts reading it aloud it sounds a lot more like some sort of cryptic riddle. I interrupt her partway through her reading.

"Do you really want to read the rest of this incantation out loud? I'm just saying I've seen far too many movies like this."

"Oh shit, you're right. Let's get out of here."

She holds onto me for a while as we put some distance between ourselves and ground zero. I wasn't too worried because I had Nightfall with me, but still. No sense triggering the xombie apocalypse until all the players are in place. We've still got three more souls to the call.

Also this is a really cute really quick game you might want to give a try.

http://ludomancy.com/games/today.html

So we're sitting around gaming at Todd's and there's a knock at the door. My first thought is Colson decided to show up late to the game. Well Skitzy opens it and while I can't see who's there I hear a female voice.

"Is 86 here?"

Todd get's up and joins Skitzy at the door and says, "You must have the wrong place." The strange woman continues to speak to them unaffected by this.

"She's not very smart, you have to protect her."

Skitzy just says, "Yeah, sorry." and starts to lock the door. However you can see the door trying to open as the crazy lady tries to force her way in. Skitzy and Todd do manage to get the door shut and locked and we try to resume the game. However, crazy lady is staring at all of us as the drapes are open about a foot. Then Shimmer points out it's about time for her to go to work. Unfortunately they don't want to have to deal with crazy lady still just outside the door. As Todd is finally about to call the cops, crazy lady finally gets into a wheelchair with a flag on the back and rolls away.

What the fuck?

and she that sat on him was called...Death!

Generally in video games these days I name male characters Xombie and female characters Necrosys. However, I already named my farm Necrosys in Rune Factory 2. So having already used that, my child's name is Death! And yes the ! is part of her name. She shall bring about that world's destruction, I've seen to that.

Also the pale wolf bit doesn't reference my current Werewolf character who happens to be an albino Metis. It's just that you ride wolves instead of horses in Rune Factory. In fact there are no horses in RF, you have to choose between wolves or bulls for riding.

I'm finally almost to the second generation in Rune Factory 2. As I prepare to transition from playing my current character to becoming his offspring a few new insights have come to mind. Not only can I have a lesbian threesome in this game, but it also allows for incest. You see the character I am currently married to has a younger sister. This younger sister is available to marry in the second generation if I chose to have a son. So basically they have no problem with you marrying your own aunt in this game.

I'm also curious if the second generation is going to have some sort of mother complex. There's just not much transition between me playing a character for who one woman is the supposed love of my life and immediately after she's my mother. That's gotta really screw with their head.

All other lines of communication have been cut Scorpy! Quickly, move my house plants outside!!!

I had one of the most awesome days ever.  Me and a small group of friends having sushi and going bowling.  It's almost a shame that three of us ended it by watching The Zombie Diaries.  It was a nice sentiment to get if for me as a gift, but oh my god I haven't seen a zombie movie that bad in sometime.  Generally I don't mind if it's a bad movie, it's just a cardinal sin for it to be a boring movie, and this was beyond boring.  It's the Blair Witch Project of zombie movies.  I refuse to recommend this movie to ANYONE!  Avoid it like the plague.  My life feels just a little emptier for having seen it.

So I'm walking around with Anna and we find ourselves in the ruins of some ancient temple.  We stay hidden for a while because it's actually a training ground for a group of ninjas.  There are various kinds of ninjas too in different colored outfits based on their skills and specialties.  It was particularly bizarre to watch the gray ninjas dive into and burrow under the solid rock.  Of course it's only a matter of time until we're discovered.

Strangely we're able to fight our way through them without too much trouble.  In our flight to get the hell out of there we get separated and I find myself in the sacrificial chamber.  It's at this point they realize, mistakenly I would think, that I'm their chosen one.  As such I'm expected to mate with their Succubus queen, the act of which will kill me.  Hmmmm, tempting but I'll pass.   They try to grab me and throw me into the pit in the middle of the sacrificial chamber and after that I think the rest of the dream was me running and hiding from the ninjas and the succubus queen.

I made pot roast for the first time ever today...

...that was easy...and damn tasty.  Next time maybe I'll even throw in a few more veggies.

I've also started playing Golden Axe Beast Rider.  It's an okay game.  Nothing special but a nice hack n slash game.  It's got a lot of nostalgia value as it's very much like a 3d modern version of the old school Golden Axe games.  I love that they kept the annoying gnomes.   The just burst out of the ground at random and you can wail away on them for food, magic, and treasure.  The beasts are a lot of fun to ride too.  It's definitely a budget title though as it's only single player, lame, and far too simplistic and linear.  I only paid $10 for my copy  though and I feel it was well worth at least that.

I was a little disappointed when I found out that many of the Harvest Moon games allowed gay marriages, but had been changed for their US releases.  I think Rune Factory 2 is trying to make up for past oppression.  Not only can you have a lesbian couple in the 2nd generation of the game, but you can marry twin girls!  My life once again has purpose.

Of course they aren't making it easy on me to achieve this.  It means I have to do twice as much courting as you have to raise each of their relationship meters separately, but equally.  As it is it's taking forever to get with girls in the first generation.  I must've shoved about 20-30 fish down Dorothy's throat already and I've only got one point on her relationship meter so far.  Maybe that tactic is better suited to penguins or dolphins.

I've always felt the courtship system of these games felt more like trying to buy someone's love, but in the case of the other girl I'm courting it's quite literal.  Alicia's relationship meter only goes up when I pay her for her *ahem* services.  While she claims to be a fortune teller I have some doubts about her actual profession.  I'm pretty sure that's just the cover story she tells her mom, what with mother dear being a doctor and fine upstanding member of the community.  It's just that Alicia dresses like a total slut and can be found down by the docks at all hours of the day.  She charges anywhere between 10-1000g for her "services".  Uh-huh. 

As much as I liked the first Rune Factory, I think this one is a huge improvement and not just for the dating prospects.  For one all the dungeons are accessible from the start.  The battle system is a bit more polished.  They've added a bulletin board with quests in the town square.  It gives the game a very animal crossing feel, only there's more purpose to it.  The interface for your items and tools is more user friendly.  The game just overall has this feeling that this was not a rushed sequel.  They really thought this through and improved upon what they had going.  I think my only complaint would be that Rune Factory has probably killed Harvest Moon for me.  I don't think I can go back to those when they've made such a wonderful offshoot that still incorporates everything I loved about the HM series. 

Really looking forward to the Wii version that's currently out.  Just need to wait for a price drop on it.

There is no joy left in my heart
My dreams have all been crushed
Where then is my soul
Was it captured by your camera

The dead will no longer greet me
Cries go unanswered in the night
Give me back my eyes
Who will give them rest

Doomed to relive the past
The present is foetid and stagnant
The future obscured by rancid corpses
A year gone by and this is all you had to say

Once my shining knight
Now the creature I despise
Bloated and misshapen by your greed
Fuck you Nintendo

http://kotaku.com/5203099/tecmo-nintendo-holding-back-fatal-frame

So following up my post of gaming too much, there was a 24hour gaming marathon this weekend.  I've been mostly steering clear of the Adventurer's Guild this semester, but this last weekend was Spring Fling and me and my van were needed to help cart around tables.  So in addition to the board and card games going on all weekend there was a wii with Dokapon Kingdom set up on the projector screen.  It was a lot of fun, but took entirely too long.  We started about 8pm and the game would've ended about 2-3am but the dicks ganged up on me as I was about to win and the game continued on until about 8am.   Around that time someone else was close to bringing about the endgame conditions and rather than be a dick like everyone else I helped him so I could finally end the damn game and go home for a quick nap. 

It was awesome fun, but man did it leave me feeling wasted all through the next day as well.  As burnt out as I am with Dokapon, when I do find new players to expose it too, I still find myself having entirely too much fun.  Definitely got another person hooked and after many nonstop hours of the game he's determined to pick up his own copy on the wii.