hikaranko

d... damn you, LucasArts. and damn you TellTale Games. damn you for resurrecting the point-and-click game love of my life in such a wonderful and beautifully rendered fashion that i cannot for the life of me turn away.

four words, ladies and gentlemen: Tales of Monkey Island.

... no wait- i lied. there are some more words: Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition.

*shakes fist* my gaming love. my adventure gaming love! how my heart throbs when i play it! how my funny bone is endlessly tickled! how my ears love to drink of the epic talent that is the cast of Monkey Island! how my wallet yearns to empty itself and succumb to your effervescent glory forever more, to the dark murky depths of the ocean and back again!


that said. I'M OFF TO PLAY IT SOME MORE. LATER. >3



but first! something completely different:

so now i know why i've been in such a mood lately. it's my time of the month. faaantaaaastic. XP

so before cramps kick in and take over. few things~

last thursday, like some kinda miracle or something... my parents and i were driving down to Walnut, and my dad had heard from one of our relatives that there were still Wiis available at Electronics Fry's. and there's one on the way to Walnut from LA, so as we were approaching the exit for it on the freeway my dad goes "hey, let's go see if they have the Wii." and i was just like "they're sold out everywhere, they probably don't." but he insists, and my mom's all for checking the place out too, and we were supposed to buy a Wii game for my cousin's birthday anyway, so we went on in. we made a bet, too. i bet against the Wii being there, my dad bet for it.

weirdly enough, we didn't find the game he wanted (Naruto - Clash of the Ninja: Revolution, which we later found in Circuit City and oh, drives me nuts with frikkin' "BELIEVE IT!" being thrown around all over the place). and so i was like "haha, i win the bet, fork over your $5." we still hung around though, seeing what else was there and stuff. i'd never been in a Fry's store before. it was bloody huuuuge!! they've got like, everything in there. books, CDs, appliances, games, magazines... it was quite amazing. so anyway, eventually i decided to get volumes 13 and 14 of Fullmetal Alchemist and my mom bought a pack of CD sleeves. so i go to the counter, and i pay, and as i'm leaving the counter, i see 2 people carrying Wii boxes.

i had to do a double take. and then i had to find my dad, so i started calling for him. and when i told him what i saw, we followed the trail, and it was just like OMGWTFBBQ FRY'S YOU ARE SELLING THEM. as it turned out, they'd just gotten a shipment in the night before, and by the time i had discovered it approximately 1:22pm, they were down to their last 2 or 3 bundles. and since my dad had previously promised he'd get me one for my birthday, whether it was early or belated or what, and so... he did. thing is, they weren't selling just the console. they were selling it in bundles, that included: the console itself and all the stuff with it, Super Mario Galaxy, Namco Museum, WiiPlay (with extra Wiimote), a nunchuck, a classic controller, a better sensor bar, better A/V cables, and a pack of those things you attach to the Wiimote to enhance your WiiSports experience.
...of course, that threw the price waay way up. so i believe we bought it for a solid $530. +tax. and some CD that my mom picked out last minute. so right then and there, we coughed up $600. ...we coulda got a PS3 with that money. XD

still. i am shocked and amazed by what happened. :D

in other news! i have now borrowed .hack//G.U. vol.2 Reminiscence and got a brand spankin' new copy of Tales of the Abyss, so i'm getting dually assaulted by the voices of Yuri Lowenthal and Johnny Yong Basch, and it's quite entertaining. XD
also: leaving for Washington D.C. to visit my sister on Sunday night. we're gonna be there for.. pretty much, the rest of my vacation. the second i get back, i'm already starting school. which kinda blows, but oh well. can't do anything about it. ...well, technically, i could cut. but my parents being in town makes that difficult.

and SPEAKING of school. GOOD GRIEF. my schedule for this winter quarter is insane. my parents forced me just to jump into the classes and figure out how the hell i'm gonna be getting around afterward. aren't my parents amazing sometimes? gah. but anyway... as it stands, i'm not gonna be able to make it to Chapman as often as i'd like. unless i get my driver's license soon (i now have a new permit! yay!). maybe twice between the start of January and the end of March, because that's how many times i'm allowed to skip a class without penalty. ...unless they don't take attendance. in which case... we will see. :P i mean geez, the only class i've got on Thursday, and of course it's gotta run from 4:30 to 7:30. people are insane.

so... argh. the cramps have assaulted. they have wonderful timing. i'm gonna go assault my PS2 again now, kthxbai. :)

so, Turkey Day came and went without a hitch! and i enjoyed it... let's try to make this brief. emphasis on the try... i really do write and talk too much.

anyways! for the weekend, went eastward to Walnut, the land of Filipinos and Where the Relatives Reside. and it's funny, 'cause most of my family apparently flew to the Philippines recently, so only the people who had kids in high school (or younger) were still there. which is actually not that many people, surprisingly. but anyway, we got picked up by our uncle and cousin (we were gonna go on an adventure by taking the bus over there, but my sister totally chickened out on me) and drove all the way over there... and our other cousin, who wasn't home and was actually working at the time, apparently has Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band. so we went over there to abduct the games...

but alas. my cousin is clearly insane. for one thing, we didn't realize that he'd gotten these things for the PS3, which he now apparently has. so we thought, maybe we'll abduct the console, too! but we couldn't get the fool thing unplugged. there are like, 5 billion plugs for the ps3, it seems like, and my cousin is insane because he had it hooked up to a HD PLASMA TV. and when we called him to ask how in the hell we're supposed to uproot the little monster, he said not to because he "couldn't stand to see it hooked up to normal TV." how spoiled is he?! i mean WOW. so we had to replug it (which i apparently messed up a bit, hehehe) and then just started playing Rock Band there.

and omg, FUN MUCH? the guitar is quite different from the Guitar Hero ones, so that took some getting used to (and we didn't dare try to use the meedleymeedleymeedley buttons near the base of the neck, they're so small!). the drums are awesome, and the mic? THE MIC IS SO COOL. i just find the fact that it actually judges how you sing the song to be simply AMAZING. it's better than a freaking karaoke machine!! by like, leaps and bounds!  and we were singing, um, Black Hole Sun, and Here It Goes, and Celebrity Hole, and Ballroom Blitz (which we tried to sing like Tia Carrera, it was quite funny), and just, gah, it was soooo much fun.

and we made a band. so, like, we made little characters and everything. and mine is named Karma, and she's the guitarist for our great band, THE MEDIUMS. yes, that's right. THE MEDIUMS, because that's pretty much the only level we could play on. XD it stuck. ... oh shush, we think it sounds awesome.

but anyway, aside from that... we had turkey. we ate us some Gobble Gobble turkey, and it was delicious. and our aunt had been kinda nervous about it, 'cause she's not usually the one who cooks! but everybody's in the Philippines, so... what could we do? she was nervous and excited, and it came out really good, and that gravy was fantastic... it would have been so good if we had mashed potatoes though. but we're Filipinos, so we'll make do with our rice. ^_^

after dinner, we went right back to Rock Band. XD y'know, after several hours straight of wielding the "axe of rock", my left wrist was starting to hurt. what is that, carpal tunnel? i hope not!! TT - TT  but whatever, it was still fun. and we were up playing it until like, 3 am, and then we all passed out. at least we woke up in time for elevensies.

but then, unfortunately, we had to go back to LA. we borrowed a car, though! so now, where we were previously without a car and having trouble getting around, the trouble is averted! and my sister totally took advantage of that time to go run errands, which i was dragged to... but oh well. our apartment is becoming prettier and prettier all the time! :D

in more recent news, we watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium the other night (since sister's denying me Enchanted until wednesday). IT'S SO CUTE, i love Dustin Hoffman in it, he's all bumbling and adorable! and the monkey doll that wants to be hugged... i loved that monkey doll, it was too cute for words~

and also in other news: yaaaaaaaaaaaay for .hack! i think i'm almost done with vol.1... i'm gonna have to borrow vol.2 from somebody. i ain't buyin' it! you can't make me!

so anyways. see all that? omg, i babbled again. anyways, that's all i've got for now. so... um... TTFN, ta ta for now! ^_^

I've become a little obsessed with GLaDOS, from the Portal game. funniest AI thing ever. i looked for a script for the game on GameFAQs.com and bwahaha, it was there!! for easy access to all the computer's crazy, silly quotes! it totally just cracks me up!!

SO RANDOM. I LOVE IT. XD

*sigh* weirdly enough, i have mixed feelings about Meet the Robinsons getting released. it was kind of fun being part of the few people who knew anything about it and had seen it. it was like i was in on some big secret and i had these mysterious friends no one had ever seen before. it was kinda cool! i really wanted the world to meet them, too... but now that they can/have, i feel a little sad. haha, i guess that just makes me totally weird.

anyways, according to the box office, Meet the Robinsons did pretty well. $25.1 mil. not as good as Blades of Glory with its $33 mil, (damn the popularity of Will Ferrel! XP) but not too shabby all the same. :) it seems that, even though most adults found the movie really confusing and random, the younger children understood the story of the Robinsons perfectly. interesting, huh? i guess it was because it's really fast paced... but geez. some adults have no imagination. :P

okay, getting off that topic now. i think everyone's heard enough about it out of me, to the point that they're getting annoyed with me. (i just really love the movie!!) XP

so booooo on school. i feel like i'm taking a million classes and my schedule's gone totally funky on me. and there are about 50 billion things i have to buy for all my classes. 42 (7 x 3 x 2 / 1 x 6 / 6) textbooks, 14 (1 x 7 x 3 x 2 / 2) of which i bought this morning. the rest i'll have to order online 'cause they're just too damn expensive. (bwahaha, i'm feeling really weird this morning. i wonder if anyone can figure out how many classes i'm actually taking from that) boooooooo classes BOOOOO. not looking forward to living out this quarter. nope. not at all.

but i am looking forward to receiving a copy of Final Mix sometime this week! yaaaaaay! i'm going to feel tragedy for Roxas and Namine all over again, it's gonna hurt my feelings something awful. T-T but still. there are a lot of fights i'm looking forward to. *evil grin* and Sora has a bunch of new outfits for some reason. one that's like his KH2 outfit design wise, but it's colored like his KH1 outfit. strange. but interesting.

ooh, FMA 69 is finally out! WAAAAAAH their world is so crazy!! GAH WINRY STUPID, KIMBLEY, FUHRER WAAAAH and MAJOR GENERAL ARMSTRONG IS AWESOME. which reminds me: OMGWTFBBQPOLARBEARAAAAAAAAAAGH NARUTO MANGA STUFFS IS GOIN' KA-KA-KA-RAAAAAAAAAAAAYZEE!!! oh, i haven't seen the new Shippuuden stuffs, come to think of it... and ooooooh Bleach is madness, too! all these new developments in my regular manga series!! I'M SO EXCITED TO SEE IT ALL PLAY OUT!!

*long, drawn out, calming-self-down sigh* hmm. well, that killed some time. i wonder what i should occupy myself with now? :P

my sister proves her awesomeness yet again by getting me a copy of the Meet the Robinsons PS2 game. which is... due to be released on the 27th. but... i got it last night. O_O
though that makes playing it a little hard, 'cause when i get stuck, there is no help to be found. XP though i shouldn't be looking for help in the first place 'cause that just makes me spoiled. so bah. regardless, I WILL TRIUMPH. ON MY OWN! XD

anyways, i'm usually skeptical of the video games that come out for Disney movies, but this one's really cute and fun. ...and Wilbur is still awesome. can't say much for obvious reasons, but it won't be too bad to say this much: the game takes place before the movie. (woohoo! doesn't that make it exciting?! XP) but of course it's still a better idea to have watched the movie first so you have a better feel for just what in the hell is going on.

this is a small piece of what is currently my favorite sequence from the game:
(Carl the family robot is freaking out because [long story short] there is a volcano in the middle of town)
Wilbur: Carl, you're all wound up! Let's just relax, take a breather, and... watch the sunset.
(they turn to look out the window. the volcano is erupting)
Carl: ... the clouds are burning.
Wilbur: try squinting.

heehee. anyways, it's a fun game. :D it's pretty much an action-adventure platformer. think Psychonauts, but Disney. really well written script (the characters are great XD). obviously the voice acting is brilliant, 'cause it's the original cast (oh Adam West, you're so weird). i think my major quip with it is the camera angles, 'cause there are times when it's hard to see what's around you. though this could be a problem strictly restricted to the PS2 version (that's what i've got it on), so with the Wii and GameCube and stuff, it might be better. :P

*deep breath* i've been playing it all morning. just needed to take a quick break. those damn robot ants are mean, and i bet the queen'll be the worst of the lot. i'll be back on it in 10-20 minutes.

hehe, and i had so much fun confusing my other sister last night with the way i was talking about it.
me: man. i need to get home. i'm on a mission, y'know.
kris: a mission? what mission?
me: yes! i need to find out who changed the code to the garage!
kris: what code?!
me: (exasperated sigh) the code to the garage! someone changed it! i have to find out who so i can get it from them, get into the garage, and take the time machine out for a spin. i think i wanted to go meet Abraham Lincoln. but Uncle Art needs me to play chargeball with the Zumzats that he brought home by accident before he tells me anything!
kris: ... WHAT?!

bwaha. live vicariously through video games. what a sad existence. XD

okay, i really shouldn't say anything more than this.

i have come to so deeply admire the artist/creator of the VG Cats comics. especially after seeing his tribute to Bleach. just... noice. XD

and someone's going to have to force me to stop making art stuffs for my FMAHP fanfic, because i've really just become addicted to it... i need to be torn away from my tablet sometime soon, lest the madness continue. even the insistent, plaintive wailing of my PS2 hasn't been enough to distract me for more than an hour or two... believe me, i tried to do that today (after cleaning the apartment Sleeping Beauty style). i love Tales of the Abyss, but my mind continued to linger on using my tablet... ay naku. i don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

though my sister is also fascinated by how the tablet works... she made me draw a picture of her and all her "TV boyfriends". i pretty much just got actual pictures of the characters she wanted and used the tablet to trace and "anime-fy" them. it turned out pretty good, though. kinda funny, but good. she put it on her MySpace page.

just watched The Incredibles with my sister on DVD... it just reminded me of how excited i am for Meet the Robinsons, and after everything she's been saying about Enchanted, i'm really excited to see that. Prince Edward is obviously awesome!! "*singing* I've been dreaming of a true love's kiss!!" heehee... that movie promises great things. let's see if it beats The Princess Bride. :P

oh yeah, before i forget, i need suggestions for good books to read while in transit. for the bus and subway rides i take to and from school everyday. i've consumed quite a few books since the beginning of the quarter. already read Watchmen, The Lovely Bones, The Alchemist, and Dogeaters. and unless i don't find a new one, i may just read Walt Disney's biography. :P which i guess i actually wouldn't mind so much if my sister wasn't trying to guess how long it might take me to finish it. hmm... i maintain that she's crazy. :D

though i'm pretty crazy myself, so i guess i have no right to talk...

tralala... *stares at tablet for a moment* i should go play FFXII or something... *wanders away*

EDIT// aaaargh, this madness should stop! why can't i stop?!?!

my birthday celebration has, unfortunately, officially come to a close. we started at midnight and ended at midnight, so it was a lovely 24 hour non-party. XD

it was interrupted by the great evil that is known to the masses as SCHOOL, but bah! i guess that didn't stop people because my English class, full of complete and total strangers, still deemed it appropriate to sing Happy Birthday to me. which was very sweet, and that class is rapidly becoming my favorite class this quarter. because that teacher is just awesome in every way.

but i digress. at any rate, my sisters and my sister's boyfriend bought me a buncha celebratory stuff on birthday's eve. yay for yummy chocolate cake at midnight!! they bought me presents, too! a new memory card for my PS2 (huzzah!! now i can play Psychonauts!) and the GameCube version of Twilight Princess (the Wii is still way outta my price range, and the game probably won't be as cool to play on the GameCube, but that's not gonna stop me :P)!! so, as you can imagine, i'm reeeeally excited for the weekend to come so i can actually start messing around with fun things galore. XD

so after midnight birthday cake and candles and blowing out of their tiny flames before they could melt too too quickly, we settled down and watched some TV. my sister had told the TV recorder thing thing to save the 100 Funniest Commercials of 2006, so we watched that. :P funniness. though i don't think the #1 funniest was all that funny. personally, i liked the French "March of the Emperors" commercial. hehe... ahaha... oh dear, the mere thought of all those Napoleons traversing Antarctica makes me giggle! XD ... oh man, i'm weird.

but after all that, and after coming home from school (i was sooo falling asleep in my math class. it's just so bloody boring), my sister and i picked up the celebration. we weren't really sure what to do (we were honestly quite content staying at home and eating Burger King, much to the chagrin of the other, socialite sister)... we played video games for a while, 'cause now we have Scarface (which we are quite in love with. the chaos and violence is quite nonsensical and fun), the Godfather, Happy Feet, and Family Guy for the PS2. but we eventually scoured the DVD reserves for something amusing that we hadn't seen in a long, long while... and found SpaceBalls.

i've never seen it uncensored before. Rick Moranis makes for quite a threatening villain. XD the "ludicrous speed" sequence cracks me up, too!

Dark Helmet: (at ludicrous speed!) my brains... are going... into.. my... feeeeet!!!

Lone Starr: (the Eagle 5 shakes and a plaid pattern suddenly appears over their heads) ... whoa, what was that?
Barf: ... i think it was SpaceBall I...
Lone Starr: (in shock) ... they've gone plaid...

Dark Helmet: (straining against the force of the speed) we... passed... them...!! stop... this... thing...!!!
Colonel Sandurz: we... can't! we're... too... fast... we... need... to... slow... down... first...!!!
Dark Helmet: (glances at Colonel Sanders in annoyance) BULL... SHIT...!!!

oh man, it's so weird seeing Rick Moranis swearing!! XD ooh! and my other favorite part in that movie:

Dark Helmet: Lone Star. there's something you need to know about us.
Lone Starr: what?
Dark Helmet: i am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.
Lone Starr: ... so, what does that make us?
Dark Helmet: absolutely nothing.

*contented sigh* ahh... great movie. great movie. Mel Brooks movies are so much fun.

and on that note, we ran out of things to do. XD it was almost midnight again anyway, so the celebration came to a close. sad trip... but all in all, a very wonderful birthday. :D

now if only i could do something about that bit where you physically age... hmm...

as always, my family holds to the belief that vacation is the time when you have to be out of the house every single hour of every single day. especially since my cousins who have never ever been to the Philippines in their lives ever arrived. we very much feel the need to show them around, which is no easy task considering the fact that Manila traffic has the amazing ability to turn what could be a 20 minute drive into a 2 hour trip. bah. but it's not too bad since we get to shop a lot with all the going out-ness, but it can quickly turn bad when the mothers hover around a single shop/stall for a good half hour, end up buying nothing, walk three feet, and then stop for another half hour at the shop/stall right next to the other one. repeat.

us kids get very weary of the pattern. but they don't let us off to our own business. i'm so craving a trip to an arcade. i need to arcade.

though i did buy a lot of video games. i now have Final Fantasy XII, Tales of the Abyss (ADDICTED TO THIS LIEK WHOA), .hack//G.U. (cannot play this properly yet until i finish Tales of the Abyss... same VA for the main characters, it confuses me), Devil May Cry 3, Psychonauts (can't play yet, need new memory card), Okami, Magna Carta (most complicated battle system ever), Wild Arms 4, Fullmetal Alchemist: Curse of the Crimson Elixir (i tried to convince myself not to get it but before i knew it i was paying... i'm such a fangirl.. *sigh*), and Battle Stadium D.O.N. (which is AWESOME because i love crossovers! it's Dragonball vs One Piece vs Naruto!!! wheeee!!! *dances*). so all that should keep me busy for the next... six months? maybe a year if school continues to plague me with its hassling-ness. crazy addicted, though. overwhelming gamerness right there.

but yeah, loads and loads of things distracting my brain from all sorts of things. between hanging out with my cousins and playing all those video games, my mind has little else to think about.

oh... and... one last thing. hehe... my cousins are making me learn this dance. we're trying to perform it at this Christmas/reunion party we're having... it's quite funny. it's gonna be so embarrassing. XD
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i'm feeling quite sublimely happy that i'm finally able to catch up on 666 Satan. and all my regularly scheduled manga is back on track and read. it puts me in a good mood. almost makes me forget my writer's block. which... i will continue to tackle when i finish posting here.

or i'll distract myself again by playing the Sims 2. my sister bought Pets. it's frustratingly addicting sometimes. i swore that i wouldn't install the Sims on my laptop, but here i am... completely going against my own word... -_-;;

shame on me.

ooh, wonderful news for me! because i did my sister a huge favor by saving her some video editing grief, a copy of FFXII may be floating my way! hooray! now i can join the procrastinating masses and get lost in that game for the rest of time! i have something to look forward to! XD

um... yeah. ^_^;;

wow, this house seems so big and quiet now that it's completely empty... O.O i wonder what'll happen when my cousin gets home and sees that the lights are all on. "hmm... not where i left you..."

i'm also busy cursing YouTube into oblivion because i want to see Ishida in english. that guy is just so awesome to me. he rocks the world with his sewing king dorkness. XD