My ICO disk isn't broken after all - hooray!

What happened was that the data on the memory card has been corrupted, and the game checks that data when it starts up, so it was glitching at that point.

There is, however, a slight problem in that the corrupted data is undeletable. So I need a new memory card. (Unless I borrow someone's card and copy all our other save files across, then reformat the card with the corrupt data? How likely is it for data to corrupt when copying it across to another card?)

The other annoying thing is that just this afternoon I went to EB and they tracked down a new copy for me. It's on order, so I'll probably just cancel it, UNLESS one of you guys wants to get it. It's $35. So, if you are wanting to buy your own copy of ICO, let me know BY TOMORROW and I won't cancel my order.

EDIT: Second copy is sorted out; now I just need to deal with the memory card...

My ICO game is not working. At all.

I switch on the PS2 and it just doesn't work. I get startup and the PS2 logo and then just black.

Dusting it didn't help. Holding it up to the light, it looks like it might have a dent in the disc - there's a thin line from the centre outwards, it doesn't look like a crack, and it's not the light reflecting on the disc.

Went down and asked Dad for help and all he did was dust it again. Roughly. And all it did was make scratches that I'm sure weren't there before.

ARGH WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE GAME WHEN IT HASN'T EVER HAPPENED TO ANY OTHER GAME OR DVD OR CD EVER?

I am very very depressed now.

*wails*

I was at the bookshop the other day, and they were playing the Cowboy Bebop opening theme. Then I walked outside and saw a capsule-toy machine with Evangelion figurines. I think anime is taking over.

Due to the grand mess that is Avatar's scheduling, the novelisation of the finale has just been released, two months before the episodes will air. ARGH SPOILERS. Hopefully I won't run into any. X_x

I found a copy of the Gamecube version of Zelda: Twilight Princess, so I've been playing that a lot lately and making lots of Okami and Shadow of the Colossus jokes to myself. Just healed the last light spirit (is it just me, or did the ominous cutscene during that bit make no sense at all?) and I'm about to start the underwater temple.
The horse-riding gameplay seems so clunky after playing Shadow of the Colossus so much. (I know it was hard to get used to Shadow's horse-riding at first, but now it seems so much better...)

I want an Avatar t-shirt with the four element symbols on it. I'm not keen on shirts with pictures of the characters (for any fandom, really), but the symbols would be cool.

I also want a mug with "1Up" on it. Tea = extra life, yes?

I'm thinking I might reuse my Katara costume for Minifest tomorrow. Probably technically not allowed, Avatar being American and Manifest being strictly-Japanese, but I want to use the costume again, and I want to find some fellow fans to squee about the finale trailer with.

Talking of which... WTH, Nickelodeon. Why on earth do you think it's a sensible idea to give us a SEVEN MONTH BREAK between episodes? ARGH.

~~~

Have been playing a few games lately. My latest favourite is Professor Layton and the Curious Village, which is brain-teaser puzzles mixed in with a mystery story and gorgeous 2D animation. Very fun, and I'm looking forward to the sequel already!
I might cosplay as Luke sometime. It's just a matter of finding all the bits of costume at op shops....

Also playing Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, which is not bad either. Sphinx's gameplay is pretty basic platformer-ness; the Mummy's is a bit more interesting but unfortunately is not the main focus of the game.

I also bought a GameCube and Pokémon Colosseum, which is an interesting variation on Pokémon battling - all the battles are two-on-two, plus sometimes you have to capture Pokémon mid-battle, so the strategy is a bit different to usual.

....I really need to finish Atelier Iris 3. Anytime I start playing it and making some progress, I find a new game to play and it gets abandoned. I'm practically up to the final boss, so I really should finish it now.... and also FFXII and Luminous Arc, both of which I got for Christmas, and neither of which are particularly good. FFXII's gambit system drove me up the wall (give me straight turn-based battle, or let me button-mash my enemies, but don't make me stand there and watch my character attack!), and LA is just not very interesting and the voices are painful.

Oh yeah, and I've suddenly started playing computer pinball again. The space-themed one that comes with Windows. Current high score is a bit over 8 million points. ^_^

~~~

The FmA manga has been particularly awesome lately. Especially the last chapter (82)... *squee* He's back!

~~~

SEE YOU ALL AT MINIFEST!

Probably a result of being in a library for ~30 hours a week, but I've been back into reading books rather than playing games lately. (This is a Very Good Thing.) Mostly I have been reading through the rather epic Edge Chronicles by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell (it's three trilogies, and an extra book of short stories, AND there's an eleventh book out sometime-or-other). Also "Starcross" by Philip Reeve (not quite as good as Larklight, unfortunately), "Time to Smell the Roses" by Michael Hoeye, and "Stormbreaker" by Anthony Horowitz.

Haven't abandoned game-playing, of course - recently have been playing Pokémon Ranger (simple but fun; looking forward to the sequel!) and also Okami, which I got for only $30! I finished it yesterday. Haven't found all the stray beads and stuff, but I don't think I'll worry about it.
Also bought that "Brain Training" game. I suspect it's mostly a waste of time. Having to earn the different training exercises through once-a-day stamps was a stupid idea. Also, the handwriting recognition is horrible, especially for the Word Memory game. I'm planning to sell a few of my games, and this will be one of them. X_x

I think I may actually have my cosplay finished before the convention. O_o

The dress is half-done already - I need to finish the collar and sew up the other side seam; that should be done tonight, then I just need to do some hand-stitching to finish it. Also need to do the sash and wristbands (will have to go back to Spotlight for material) and hopefully the bag as well - that's a low priority bit though - and the necklace is mostly done but, since I've got a spare pendant anyway, I would like a second try to see if I can make a nicer one. If I have time at the end, that is.

Hmmm, need to preregister for the cosplay contest. Hope I haven't left that too late.

~~~

I have decided that having a jigsaw puzzle on the go at the same time as my cosplay is in fact a good idea. Gives me something else to do that's close to where my sewing is, and I'll do it for maybe five or ten minutes at a time, rather than, say, a videogame which might hook me for a few hours.

~~~

I have decided that I don't like Rogue Galaxy. The graphics are nice but the gameplay is nothing special, half the playable characters are unlikeable for one reason or another, as are nearly all of the non-playable characters. I'm really not enjoying the story much at all. I'll keep playing for a bit longer - until I get my last playable character, at least - but I think I'll be taking it back.

I never did write anything post-Manifest, did I? I'm lazy like that. ^_^; Well, I had fun. Costume did actually get finished and looked pretty good; pity that practically nobody recognised me. I didn't think the FmA manga would be quite that obscure still...

Brad's party last Saturday was fun - wandering around the city in a pirate costume got me some weird looks though! ^_^;

At long last I'm actually attempting to make an AMV instead of saying "wouldn't it be cool if I made an AMV?" - I'm using ICO, because ICO is the only thing that I've got videos of on my computer, and I'm not going to be downloading anything else for quite a while... not that I have all of ICO, so I'm going to have to wait a while to finish it.

Bought the game Rogue Galaxy for PS2 yesterday, and stayed up til almost 4:00 in the morning playing it. @_@ I should know to not start playing RPGs late at night.

...it's one week til Armageddon Expo, and I haven't started my costume. Again. X_x Stupid time to be buying a new game, really. Went to Chadstone just wanting to see if Borders had the Avatar comic book, and ended up buying a game and a jigsaw puzzle. Like I need anything new to waste time on right now.

Well, at least Katara should be somewhat less of an epic undertaking than Mei was. I don't have to make pants this time, the dress is pretty straightforward (same pattern I used for Mei's shirt, mostly), and the necklace is the only bit that's going to be fiddly.

Been neglecting my LJ again. ^_^;;;

Thanks to everyone who came to my birthday lunch. I had a lovely time, and I hope you all did too! ^__^

~~~

I have work! Well, actually I had work all last week, and now I've got more work! ^_^

Last week was helping with a "space audit" at Melbourne University - basically going around to different rooms and counting how many people were in them. Which was all good and fine for empty rooms or open areas that I could just walk past and count, but having to interrupt classes or meetings was horribly horribly awkward. X_x
So yeah. Had to do it once an hour all week. I am very sick of seeing that building. The view from the upper floors was nice, though.

New job is a library one, yay! Right over the other side of the city - hour and a half on the train/bus - but it's only one day a week. I can deal with that. Starts tomorrow. Hope it goes well! ^_^

~~~

Went over to Kristy's house last weekend. Anime marathon yay! We watched:

Romeo x Juliet - is so very very pretty. ^_^ I'm really enjoying this. Hoping muchly that, somehow, it's not going to end like the play because I really don't like it. I don't find any appeal in them killing themselves, tragic-romance or otherwise. I'm okay with them dying in the end for a noble cause or something, but not the original ending.

Air - most incredibly disappointing ending EVER. Didn't like it at all.

Guardian of the Sacred Spirit - also very pretty. Can't wait to see more of it!

Also went for a long walk down to the beach. Weather was absolutely wonderful while we were down there - we wished we'd brought our sketchbooks! - but in the end it rained while we were on our way home again! It was nice rain though. Didn't bother with the umbrella. ^_^;

~~~

Fandom-wise, I recently bought Atelier Iris 3. Not liking it as much as the others, story/character-wise, and not as keen on the character design either. But it's still fun to play - the quest system is cool.

Avatar season three is also coming ever closer - so excited about that! One month to go! ^__^

~~~

Somehow Manifest has practically slipped my mind. Three-and-a-half weeks to go and I haven't even bought the fabric for my cosplay yet! Gyah!

Also, I'm probably missing the Sunday morning of Manifest because one of my Salvation Army friends is getting sworn in as a soldier in the morning meeting. So I wouldn't be getting in to Melbourne Uni until lunchtime even if I go straight from church - and that also makes cosplay rather awkward. X_x;;;

~~~

Anyway, up early tomorrow for work (♥!), so I'd better get to bed. Goodnight!

Man, whyyy am I still up at three o' clock in the morning?

Oh yeah, playing videogames. And then I decided it would be a good idea to go on the computer and check my email. That was, like, an hour ago. I really should be in bed.

~~~

My ankle's a lot better now. Still hurts a bit if I bend it too far and I still can't run, but at least it's not hurting whenever I move it, like it was before.

~~~

Been playing a lot of videogames lately. Pokémon and Ouendan of course; apart from that I did buy Fullmetal Alchemist: Dual Sympathy for $25 from EB Games last week, figuring that at that price it'd be worth it even if it wasn't too great. So much for that logic. It's a total rehash of the anime plot - badly presented and slow to skip through - with a few fights thrown in. Took it back the next day and was lucky enough to find Ty the Tasmanian Tiger - which I've been wanting for a while now - for the same price! So I've been playing that - it's a lot of fun! It's cool to have a game with an Australian setting. ^_^

I also ordered Ouendan 2 from Play-Asia, so I should be getting that hopefully next week. Oh, and I rented Elite Beat Agents the other weekend and got through the whole thing within the two days I had it. Final stage practically killed me. X_x

I ordered the soundtracks for ICO and Shadow while I was getting Ouendan. Can't wait to get those! Pretty pretty music~~

~~~

Also at the moment I've been doing a lot of cross-stitching. Mum found this big Lord's Prayer cross-stitch that she wants me to do - it's going to take ages! But I enjoy doing it. I need to remember to take breaks more often than I do, though - I reckon it's an even bigger timesink than videogames! ^_^; Hours just seem to vanish while I'm concentrating on it.

~~~

Pokémon DP launch tour is this weekend! Not sure if I'll go in the tournament - my team's pretty dodgy - but I'm definitely going in the cosplay contest! I'm working on a Hikari costume (will have to finish that tomorrow) because I'm tired of doing Team Rocket - I want to be a good guy for a change!

~~~

Anyway. Must stop procrastinating and get to bed. Goodnight!





....

Four o' clock in the morning. FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, WHY DO YOU ALWAYS DO THIS! BED! NOW! NO EXCUSES!

Ready Steady Go - stage clear! Yes!

Hard Mode is, er, hard. And the Captain guy is annoying. I don't like his hat. Can I have Ryuta back please?

I've gotten hooked on the songs "Taisetsu na mono" and "Over the Distance" - listening to an MP3 of it now! ^_^


Actually, I think I've been playing it too much, because my thumb has been sore since this morning. Too much holding the stylus tightly, I think.

Got Ouendan a few days ago, and I've been playing it heaps - lots more than Pokémon (got that at the same time, and I'm not up to the first gym yet!) - and I'm up to "Ready Steady Go" (final stage yay!) on Normal mode. It's driving me mad - the intro is insanely long, and I keep messing up on the same bit, where you're meant to tap on the off-beat. Even getting one or two wrong prettymuch screws up the whole song. (I'm actually playing now, and writing this while waiting for the intro to play inbetween attempts!)

But, yes. Awesome game. Very fun, very very addictive.

Now, back to playing. Osu!

Man, it's been so smoky today. Had to wait for a bus for ten minutes or so and it was just yucky. Can't imagine how awful it must be for the people actually up where the bushfires are.

Been babysitting again, tonight and yesterday night. The girls have a PS2 now; I've been introducing them to the awesomeness of Kingdom Hearts. Lent them the game - I'll be interested how far they actually get on their own though! I was guiding them (well, Megan; Leanne was just watching) pretty constantly, and Megan doesn't like random battles and levelling up. She also seems to have lots of trouble remembering how the level is arranged (I don't know if that's a problem for lots of people or not; I catch on to level layouts fairly quickly).

And I didn't realise Megan was such a Disney fan! Last time I asked them if they liked Disney movies (I'd brought Treasure Planet along to watch) they didn't seem too excited, but tonight Megan was bouncing in her seat every time the Disney characters were on! (She's eleven, by the way.) She was very disappointed that you couldn't play as Donald.

And they like Kairi. Yay! Also very disappointed they couldn't play as her either.

Megan thought Sora was a girl at the very start. Heh.


We also had a go at SingStar. I still can't get more than two-thirds through a fast/loud song without totally wrecking my voice and squeaking my way through the rest of it. (Jet "Are you gonna be my girl?" was it for me. X_x) Totally beat their high score for INXS "Never Tear Us Apart" though, and it's Leanne's favourite. The lower-range ballads suit me best, I think.

It's weird, for The Veronicas "4ever" I sing low in the verses but once it hits the chorus all I can do in that range is squeak. So I have to jump up an octave; it must sound really weird!

Coldplay "Speed of Sound" is hard. X_x Probably not helped by Megan next to me totally screwing the timing on her singing and putting me off, but still. Chorus is okay but the verses are tricky.

I'm disliking Gwen Stefani "What you waiting for?" more and more. Can't stand the lyrics. Especially when I'm having to sing them! X_x Spent a fair bit going do-de-do at the (attempted) right pitch on principle because I didn't want to sing those words. (And for the record, it's "take a chance you stupid girl" if I'm singing. Megan had picked up the changed lyric by the end of the song! Hah! =P)

And it's funny how you get used to singing songs at the "wrong" pitch. "Down Under" is a song I'd say I know the tune to, but half the time I'm way off! And generally with held notes I change note a lot when it should stay constant.

45 hours of gameplay, and it is FINISHED! All worlds cleared, most treasures found, not all minigames done, synthesis largely neglected. Oh, and Sephiroth not defeated because he is INSANELY hard and I currently can't last more than a minute against him. @_@

But yes. Other than that.

( ZOMG spoilers )

...

...

( and the FmA parallels keep coming *manga and movie spoilers* )

Diamond and Pearl versions are out, and Serebii.Net has a page of all the new Pokémon! There are some really cool-looking ones!

So many new pre/evolved forms of older Pokémon! Yay!

And at long long last WE HAVE A PLANT-TYPE EEVEE!

I wonder if the Venus fly-trap Pokémon is going to be an alternate Weepinbell evolution, to mirror Gloom's Vileplume/Bellossom evolution? I'd thought of a fly-trap evolution for it a while ago, so it'd be interesting if I'd actually guessed right!

Cherry Pokémon! CUTE! ...but why does the fruit evolve into a flower? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

And the fire-type starter-Pokémon picks up fighting-type again. They should have gone for something different, I think.

Looks like Gardevoir might be female-only now and #475 is its male counterpart... good idea. Gardevoir should not be male. Neither should Kirlia for that matter, but oh well...

Whoa, up to the final world already! "Already" being 40 hours into the game...

I've been playing this waaaaay too much. X_x

Oh, and a handy tip to anyone not thrilled with the prospect of Atlantica and much singing... you can clear the whole thing quite easily with the sound switched off the whole time.

ZOMG 30 hours of gameplay since Wednesday afternoon. And I was out for most of Thursday. @_@

( spoilers, rambling, annoyance at ruining of a childhood icon, etc. )

( ...and an issue of terminology (with stray FmA spoilers) )

...darnit, I keep trying to write "LJ-CUTE" when putting in the cut tags. O_o

I HAVE KINGDOM HEARTS II~~~~~~~~~~~

So I've just gotten to the FF characters' base in Hollow Bastion....

( *rambles* )

Anyway. Better go now. I'm babysitting today.

THEY DELAYED THE RELEASE OF KINGDOM HEARTS II AGAIN.

It was supposed to be August 7. Spent the weeks coming up to that date getting excited. Come the day, "sorry, it's been pushed back to August 29". ;_; Oh well. A few more weeks. I can wait a few more weeks.

Yeah. Right.

It doesn't come out for another MONTH. THIS HAS BEEN ALMOST TWO MONTHS OF HANGING IN SUSPENSE. ARGH.

*sends death glares in the general direction of whoever was responsible*

~~~

Of course, almost as frustrating as the fact I have to wait is the fact that I might not have the console to play it on, because my brother has decided to sell the PS2, and buy a new one. Supposedly it's going dodgy. (I've never had a problem with it besides it refusing to play FF7 for some strange reason. Certainly nothing recent.) And he's being frustratingly vague as to when we're actually getting the new one.

And then there's little bits of illogic. Like the memory card.

"Are you selling the memory card too? If you are, I'd like to go over to Nicole's and back up my save files first."
"Yes I am, but I'm buying a new card before we sell the old one so you can copy your files onto that instead."
"Right. So why don't you just sell the new one and keep the old one that has the save files on it already?"
"...oh yeah."

He's already packed everything up to sell it, too, so I can't play it at the moment... and he packed it up with Nicole's Prince of Persia game still in it. That would have been just great if I hadn't noticed, wouldn't it?

~~~

Anyway. Prince of Persia. Just finished it the other day.

I liked the gameplay - something like ICO on hyperdrive - and the overall plot, and the way the ending played out... but as to the specifics of the plot... WTH? ( cut for spoilers )

And the Prince gradually losing his shirt throughout the game. X_x He looked better with it on, anyway. (I suspect it was an attempt at fanservice for the girls, because otherwise it doesn't have much going for it so far as attracting female gamers goes...)
VG Cats put it rather nicely, I think...

Oh, and the controls for the original Prince of Persia game (you can unlock it on the PS2 game) are every bit as clunky and utterly frustrating as I remember. >_<

~~~

And while I'm angsting about gaming, Shadow of the Colossus is now available brand-new for about $50. I paid $90. X_x

So I got this link from baorin_lee. It's rather amusing.

...once I noticed that the panel on the right was in fact your navigation panel, and not an advertisement.

Some better lines from the dungeon exploration:
There is graffiti on the walls about libraries.
There are bones on the floor in the shape of manga.
A wooden sign warns of theatre. (are the actors that bad?)
You read the scroll of Azusachan! It burst into flame! You lose 10 HP! (;_; Amy~~~)
Across one wall is a faded fresco of ico. (not funny, just appropriate for its subject. for once. Same room as the healing potion of Studio Ghibli. I like this room.)

Oh, and I suck.



Second time, still no cookie:



WTH? I don't know how you're supposed to beat the enemies without phenomenal luck. Your weapons don't do enough damage, and as far as I can tell there's no EXP system.

Ah well.

FmA #62 translation will be out sooooon~~~

Eeeee~~~ FmA #62 is out! Wantwantwant! *mustwaitfortranslationmustwaitfortranslationaaaaaargh*

~~~

Recently I've taken up cross-stitching. I was wandering around the craft section at Spotlight - looking for cosplay supplies, actually! - and there were beginner's cross-stitch kits on sale. I've wanted to try it for a while, so I bought one. Thought I should maybe find some sort of hobby that isn't related to geekdom. (Not that there's anything wrong with geekdom...)

My goodness, it's a bigger time-waster than video-gaming, I swear it... and probably worse for my posture (hunched over holding the needle for ages) and my eyes as well. But I do enjoy doing it, I just don't think I should start any other ones once I finish this one... it's an iris-patterned bookmark. I'm about a third of the way through so far.

Oh, and the "not being geeky" idea? That lasted all of a few minutes' sewing, after which I was considering how it's essentially an old-fashioned equivalent of pixel art, from which my brain gave an almost-involuntary leap to "ZOMG you could do game sprite cross-stitch!" and specifically, of all things, Pac-Man cross-stitch. I don't even play Pac-Man.

I think any attempt to be not-geeky is probably completely futile.

~~~

It was my birthday last Sunday. I am now twenty.

That sounds very scary.

Anyway.

Went for a drive to Hanging Rock with my family. No picnic though. We had lunch at Woodend - there was a nice bakery-café there, and they had really good vanilla slice. Then we went to the Rock, and went up to the top - I went climbing on the rocks at the summit to get a better view - and to get right to the top! ^_^

I feel like I should do something with my friends as well, but then that means organising, and not having everyone's phone numbers or stuff, and maybe accidentally leaving people out... I'm so glad to have all my wonderful friends, but it makes planning invitations to parties so much more confusing!

Anyway, I've sort of left it too late - I'm possibly busy tomorrow night (which is really too-short notice now, anyway); Sunday I have church in the morning (and I'm helping with morning tea, so I can't get out of it) and dance practice in the afternoon (definitely can't get out of that!). Maybe Sunday night. Or something. Not sure what to do, anyway... ^_^;;;

~~~

Creche last Monday was somewhat crazy. We had five or six new kids, so the group has suddenly doubled in size; also we were in a different room to normal because another group was using the other room. The normal room has a tiled area for when the kids are playing with playdough. This room has carpet. Ann got the playdough out anyway. (Personally I wouldn't have, because I'd have expected disaster. But Ann is older and has kids of her own, so I assumed she knew better.)

You can guess what happened next, right?

We did get most of the playdough out of the carpet...

~~~

I've been doing work experience at a library this week. I'm in Tech Services and I've spent several days sorting through their largish, inconsistently-catalogued book/cassette kit collection trying to get it in order.

~~~

Kingdom Hearts 2 should be out NOW, darnit... stupid whoever-it-was pushing the date back... Now I have to wait until the end of the month... ;_;

At least I'm not paying for it. Birthday present yay!

I've been playing the first game again ready for it. Up to the duel with Riku - my favourite battle in the whole game! Yay! The scene after it is so pretty. ^__^

Oh, and Riku is seriously reminding me of Wander from Shadow of the Colossus. "I'll do anything to save Kairi, and I don't care what happens to me!" ...sounds rather familiar...

~~~

I want to watch Moulin Rouge again. I've been listening to the soundtrack while I'm sewing.

~~~

I have nothing else I can think of to say.