Time Kompression
02.08.27
E15:37
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Music o' the Entry: Various tunes of Final Fantasies VIII & X
Once and again, hooray for boyfriend's marvelous Square OST collection, so it brings me much glee, even if my own musical darlings (such as the recently recovered Bara no Seidou) don't delight him as much. So anyway, I writing this before I have to go the airport at 4 to go get Miho, who will be living with me for the next two weeks. I'm quite curious, as the only way I know her is we've been e-mailing since July or so, I've never actually met her in person. As for how all this got arranged, when I called Yuri before she left I spoke to Okaasan for a bit, and she told me that she had met Miho's mother at Makudo or some such and after a bit of discussion suggested that Miho come stay at my house (evidently she'd been trying to get into some sort of exchange program to the US this summer but deadlines took their toll, as they tend to) and so, yeah, she'll be here in a little under two hours. Hopefully things will go well, I'm mostly curious about her English ability as my family's foreign language abilities consist mostly a) random Japanese words b) random Polish c) random Czech d) random Spanish. A great o' randoms, eh? Just not sure, but I'm positive things will be fine, I've never had any difficulty understanding her writings. Thusly I shall write more upon making her acquaintance.
So I finally got sick of the Card Queen's Quest (the bloody Random rule was causing much anger and pain) and decided it would be in my best interest (in terms of spoilers) to go ahead and beat Final Fantasy VIII, which I promptly did. My thoughts? Well, first off, "Maybe I'm a Lion" rocks to obscene limits. I mean, seriously, why must it rock so? Particularly the intro to when it launches into the song from all the percussiony goodness. And what joy, it just came on my playlist. Yes, please bust out the ole FFVIII and listen to it loud on stereo, just for old time's sake. But otherwise...okay, what's with the 2001-type stuff going on? The beginning of Disc 4 was surreal in the truest sense of the word, it was reminiscint of a cross between 2001 imagery and stuff that seemed to be inspired by either Dali or Escher, both artists whose work I admire and really need to decorate my walls (my room has a distinct otaku flavour, which actually isn't a fault of my own; I think I've purchased one of the posters in my room and none of the three wallscrolls that are up, of Fushigi Yuugi, Angel Sanctuary, and Rurouni Kenshin). Yeah, anyway, confusing and nutty but I liked it. But you know what I really dug? Yeah, you guessed it, Ultimecia's Castle. I mean, holy voodoo monkey on a flaming stick, it was like, my dream home, complete with the BGM that starts out all happy and shiny with the nearly assaultive entry of the pipe organs. It's good stuff, kiddos. Seriously, the home of Ultimecia had EVERYTHING I'd desire in a truly extravagent dream home that I'll ne'er dwell in; ornate staircases of interesting construction, chandeliers, fountains, an art gallery (with lots of Latin, which I was happy of too), a chapel complete with pipe organ, armory, chains, torches and sconces...ye gods, it was grand, my decorating scheme of choice. Which I'm sure, as we all know, labels me as a flaming goth. And I'm not terribly sure how much accuracy ISN'T in that statement, but I'll still protest my gothitude until the cloak of death envelopes me or whatever (that was sarcasm, by the way), despite displaying many typical "goth" traits. Like I've always said, I'm always on the fringes; meaning sure, I may fit a large number of traits placing me in any group, but there are always just enough contrasting ones for said group to disqualify me for "membership". I fear I'm just too darn goofy to be a goth, and squeal a bit too much. Oh, plus there's the music thing, but oh well. I'm me, whatever label one deigns to slap on me, don't change a thing. So anyway, back to Final Fantasy VIII. Ultimecia...was she supposed to have a Russian or Eastern European accent? Perhaps German? Just trying to figure out what's going on with the whole "time kompression" bit. And what was up with that dress? Cute neckline, that. Anyway, the battles themselves weren't deliberately difficult, courtesy the Aura spell, Renzokuken, Pulse Ammo, and Shockwave Pulsar, which is a ridiculously cool name for a spell. As for Pulse Ammo, I dig it, the whole recoil thing that Irvine does while shooting Exeter like a frigging arm cannon or some such. As for the ending...kinda confusing, Squall got boned bigtime, walking around like such a dejected little boy. Of course, I think I'd be rather dejected as well after I'd been unceremoniously displaced into the SUCKIEST REALITY EVER. And I was happy and clapped for married, dreamy Laguna, the dorkiest president Esthar's ever had. And the best part? The quasi-video at the end, that was utterly PRICELESS, and looked quite good for the time period of FFVIII. So my take on it? A decent game, even if the plot could be confusing. And I dig Matron-Edea, she has superb fashion sense and I liked it how she told little Squall that he was the only Squall allowed, twas cute, that. But now I'm playing Final Fantasy Tactics for about the third or fourth time, taking the opportunity to cheat wildly and dig on all the politics. Of course, I've been quite political as of late, but when am I not?
So now I have a new plan about my going to Japan. You see, Matt has a friend who's in Japan now, with the JETS program. Just got there, fresh out of college, 3.6 million yen a year, which is about $30,000/yr US, with his rent and airfare paid for. That, my poppets, is NOT a bad deal. Matt had always kind of been planning on participating in this program, whereas I hadn't. However, we discussed, and decided it'd be in our best interest for us both to participate, while trying to get placed in Hyogo Prefecture (which is where Nishinomiya is located, unsurprisingly). So I'm still going to try to get that ESL degree, because JETS only lasts for three years and if we decide not to return to North America I need something to fall back on. And I say North America, because I think I've decided that after I get out of the US, I don't really want to live here again, and that Canada suits me more politically, given that the US seems to be taking a highly disturbing political stance that is presently squeaking "Nazi Germany". I use the term "squeaking" in comparison to "screaming", but it seems to be just a matter of time...hooray, Bush regime. Plus the fact that most of the self-righteous "patriots" of the US would be more than happy to see my dreaded subversive "unAmerican" self be gone...well, they'll get what they want sooner or later, eh? It just seems the best choice for Matt and I economically, as he'll have debts after he gets out of school and it's guaranteed employment (thank you Japanese Ministry of Education)...so yeah, the latest in my ever-evolving plan of "Nihon he ikimashou!"
A couple nights ago whilst riding the exercise bike and digging on the Final Fantasy Tactics, my mother informed me I had a phone call from one host sister named Yuri. Indeed, I was delighted to hear that she had arrived fine in Boston (other than some luggage mishaps which left her towel-less for a bit) and is enjoying MIT, though she hasn't settled permanently yet. So we talked for a bit, and it was grand; I wish I could go to Boston to visit her, it'd be lovely. She said she hadn't selected classes yet, so last night I decided to waltz on over to MIT's website, just to look at course descriptions...um, yeah, it's not called one of the most prestigious scientific institutes for no reasons, I didn't understand the better half of some of the course descriptions, particularly the terror-inspiring math (though the chaos theory classes seemed interesting), but it DID give me a perspective on what a craphole my university is, not that I needed reminding. Kids, don't come to my school. I mean, seriously, just don't, bad idea. Which, if you're curious, is Eastern Washington University. I suppose I can see how it'd work for some people, but for me...basically Matt's the only thing keeping me here period, the overwhelming majority of the course programs utterly do not fit me. Actually, I have no clue how I became a geography major, probably more lack of anything I wished to study more, such as atmospheric science, plus the department does have some good instructors. But yeah, I was happy to speak to Yuri, and more happy that she's now domestic long-distance, which means I'll be able to speak to her much more.
But anyway, need to go get ready to go to the airport, so I leave you with this strange slice of a conversation that Matt and I had the other day:
Me: "That guy reminds me of Jesus."
Matt: "Why?"
Me: "Because he's shooting people."
...trust me, I have NO idea, I think I was sleepy, or it could've been that blueberry punch that we were drinking. You know, the cheap stuff that's mostly food colouring, comes in gallons, and has absolutely no nutritional value to speak of? Yeah, that stuff, it'll do it to you every time.
chronos
Ekairos
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