Off to...

...Hokkaido for nine days. I’m currently sick and I don’t think that adventure time in Hokkaido will do much for my cold, but I’m nonetheless pretty excited about it. Anyway, no updates for a while. Be back in nine unless I get eaten by a bear.

Do As Infinity ∞1

New single.



2009.6.17

小銭入れ

I finally caved and got myself a wallet for my coins. By definition, a wallet is something that holds “paper money and credit cards,” but I've also heard the term "coin wallet" used before, so...behold the coin wallet. Logic may tell you that it's a coin purse, but I humbly ask you to ignore logic for the sake of my masculinity.



A couple of weeks back, a bunch of the teachers and I were out at a popular drinking spot for the local college students here. We ended up playing this weird game where we set up an ashtray in the middle of the table, and each participant had to throw 100 yen into the pot whenever he/she said “sensei.” The idea was to do our best to not let the college kids know that we were instructors. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, especially since we’re so conditioned to saying “sensei” whenever we address each other during the day. You can imagine how difficult it can get once you’ve had a few drinks in your system. After a couple of hours had passed, people were dropping in 100 yen pieces left and right, but when I accidentally said the word, I had to throw in paper money because it’s all that I had on me. In fact, that’s usually how I roll unless I’m walking to the convenience store across the street from my apartment. Some of the other teachers interpreted it as me being too rich to carry coins, while the reality is that I simply don’t like the feeling of loose change jangling around in my pockets. Anyway, I didn’t need another reason for the other teachers to be giving me a hard time about the size of my salary, which was what eventually led to my latest purchase.

I haven't hit manbag territory yet, so I figure I'm still doing ok.

Nike Zoom MVP

The current object of my desire. It's the first real good looking Steve Nash sneaker, and the "Trash Talk" version is eco-friendly to boot. Nash:

"I have a passion for preserving our environment, so if I can wear a Nike basketball shoe that reuses waste, performs on the court and is packaged in a shoebox made from 100 percent recycled fiber, then that’s a winning combination."

Looks like the Trash Talk is a HoH exclusive, but I gotta have 'em.



Still kicking myself for sleeping on the Supreme "Monstrous Game"edition.





I'll get my hands on a pair sooner or later.

(Cat)Fight!!!

Word out of Lakerland is that Sasha Vujacic and Adam Morrison (apparently now a Laker) were getting into at practice. Via the Orange County Register:

Vujacic and Morrison were guarding each other in the Lakers’ 4-on-4 halfcourt practice, and Morrison loudly and angrily told Vujacic that he was sick of Vujacic’s grabs and elbows. Vujacic argued that Morrison was the one who initiated the problem by wrongly using his knee. The two argued for several minutes despite teammates and coaches trying to intervene, and when play resumed the two continued to go at each other with Morrison grabbing Vujacic’s jersey and the arguments sparking anew several times later.

Eventually co-captain Derek Fisher and assistant coach Brian Shaw tried to defuse the situation — although no one was overly concerned and Phil Jackson sat in the stands with some amusement as he watched it all. Still, both players remained clearly upset.

Let me just say - WORST FIGHT EVER.



Of course, the funniest thing about the situation is Phil Jackson watching it all and having himself a good time. Morrison looks like he should be playing for the Flint Tropics, but aside from that, I've really got no problems with the guy.

But Sasha Vujacic is a bitch.

WHO WANTS TO SEX MUTOMBO!!???

He says that he's 42, everyone really thinks that he's 52, but he got up and down the court like he was 32. The man was brilliant, spoke something like 10 languages, and was more generous than you and I could ever hope to be. Most NBA players buy a mansion, a Bentley, a Ferrari, a bunch of chains...Dikembe built a hospital. Arguably the best shot blocker of our time, and definitely the best taunter. 4-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. 8-time NBA All-Star. Known for having the deadliest elbows this side of Mitsuharu Misawa. Dikembe even had the most incredible, straightforward pick up line that that would never work coming out of the mouth of a mortal man. And to top it all off, he sounds exactly like the Cookie Monster.

Let's here it for Deke.



Possibly the greatest man in the history of men. The NBA won't be the same without him.

The End Of The Iceman

Looks like things could be up for Chuck Liddell. After losing his latest bout, again by TKO, the once unbeatable light heavyweight looks to be leaning towards retirement. Dana White is really pushing hard for him to hang up the gloves, citing concerns for Liddell’s health, and though there are times when illogical doesn’t even begin to describe the stuff that comes out of White’s mouth, it’s tough to argue with his reasoning this time around. I really don’t think its so much that Liddell’s ability has deteriorated, as much as it is that people have simply stopped fearing him. Everyone was scared of Mirko Cro Cop for the longest time until Gonzaga kicked his head off, and Mirko’s career has yet to really recover from that fight. Same thing with Liddell. Chuck maintained an aura of invincibility for a good couple of years until Rampage came along and put his lights out. Since then, it seems like Chuck has been getting laid out in every fight that he’s been in; Jardine, Evans, Rua...it hasn't been pretty. Liddell’s last win came over Wanderlei Silva, and in hindsight, that would have been the ideal fight to close his career with.



I’ve never really been a big fan of Chuck, but it’s tough to dispute his status as one of the greatest light heavyweights that the sport has ever seen. The final chapter of his career may have been a forgettable one, but at least he’ll always have those two wins over Randy Couture. Dana apparently wants to give Liddell a job as a spokesman for the UFC, but somehow I don’t think Chuck is the guy that you want in a suit representing your company at board meetings. Just saying.

Final Fantasy XIII Demo Impressions

The cut scenes are absolutely breathtaking, but the in-game visuals aren’t quite as mind-blowing as you might be inclined to expect from the FF series’ first installment on the Playstation 3. I wasn’t floored like I was when I first played FFVII on the original PS or FFX on the PS2...which isn't to say that Final Fantasy XIII isn't one of the best looking games that I've ever seen. I guess that I was just expecting something revolutionary when I should have been content with excellence.



I hated the whole “command stacking” system for the first 5 minutes, then got used to it, then started to love it, then got lukewarm on it again, and now I’m really not so sure what to think. The idea was apparently to create battles reminiscent to the gravity defying exchanges seen in Advent Children, and while the launch command and air combos do somewhat succeed in replicating the aforementioned melees, it’s somewhat difficult to imagine the game’s battles not getting a little repetitive under the system. To be fair, my skepticism is probably directly linked to the fact that I was playing a demo, as there were obviously only so many different combinations of “attack,” “launch,” and “ice” that you could throw at your opponent. As the game goes on and your characters begin to add to their arsenal of commands, I imagine that the stacking system could potentially get really deep. For what it’s worth, the game does feel very fast-paced, and you really don’t feel like your character is simply waiting around for the ATB bar to fill up (even though he/she technically is).



Lightning doesn’t quite come off as a “female version of Cloud,” which was what Nomura was apparently shooting for, but her gritty, bounty hunter-like appearance is sure to be well received by fans. She’s accompanied by a twin pistol-wielding black dude who appeared to have a baby chocobo living in his afro…and I'm not even sure how I should react to that.



Snow, the other playable character in the demo, is big, wears a bandanna, and (barring false reports) apparently rides Shiva around in the form of a motorcycle at some point in the game. That sounds kind of silly, but I’ll hold judgment until I actually see it myself. Considering that a lot of the monsters in the game seem to be machine-based, I wouldn’t be surprised if the summon creatures in this installment are all Transformers-esque shapeshifters.

There are definitely a few weird details here and there, but things look to be shaping up pretty nicely overall. I could do without the heroine's American Gladiators name, but other than that, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the finished product this winter.

"What Have We Always Said Is The Most Important Thing?"

Sooooo stoked right now. My immediate family sent me a big box of nothing for my birthday, but my Aunty always comes through with the good stuff.



I got my 1/2 Cents and my Eggplant Foams in the mail earlier this month, but I honestly got more excited over this because I wasn't expecting it. Never underestimate the importance of breakfast. Or family.

Where Will Amazing Happen This Year? (Hint: Not Phoenix)

Which isn't to say that I'm not interested. I'll be rooting for Sheed and Dice over in Detroit, but it's kind of tough to give them much of a chance with LeBron pretty much destroying everything in his path. It was actually pretty funny when Kevin Harlan proclaimed that Bron had "NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE!" the other year, but that statement is becoming more and more appropriate as the games go by. By the way, that particular call by Kevin Harlan is probably #2 all time in Harlan lore, second only to:



"OH, HE JUST SUCKED THE GRAVITY RIGHT OUT OF THE BUILDING!" Harlan is seriously the man. Yeah, yeah, he reuses lines from time to time, but what play-by-play guy doesn't? Nobody can effectively cap a moment quite like him these days.

The team that I'm really pulling for is the Hawks, if only because of Joe Johnson. Unfortunately for Atlanta, there are probably four individual players in the league that you almost have to fear, and Miami's D-Wade is one of the them (the other 3 being Kobe, LeBron, CP3). I can't see Wade singlehandedly taking four games from this Atlanta squad, but it should be a fun series.



Check the pair of Old Love XX3s on JJ's feet. Maybe that ATL/Boston series is why I love those particular shoes so much.

Advent Afterthought

Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete. Not quite the high point of my week, but it's close.



Of course, this is really what it's all about:

WWE Draft In Review

Raw: Oh boy. HHH, Cena, Orton, Batista, Big Show, Michaels…guys like Matt Hardy and MVP aren't even going to sniff a world title shot with that mess clogging up the main event scene. I'll be perfectly honest, all this WWE draft talk is just an excuse for me to post this picture of Cena wearing the Jordan 2K9.



I like that the Tag Team titles are unified and on Raw, but hopefully Carlito and Primo won’t immediately be jobbed out to DiBiase and Rhodes. It’s pretty clear that Legacy will have those belts eventually, but a proper feud with the Colons over the titles would be nice. Sucks that THE Brian Kendrick will likely be reduced to getting squashed by Batista on a weekly basis, but I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes.

ECW: Not sure why Christian is still stuck on this show. He’s in his prime and seems to be getting big reactions, but I guess that management doesn’t want to really push a guy who still has that TNA vibe.



They probably need a vet who knows how to work the ring and bring along the younger talent, but isn’t that what Finlay and Dreamer are around for? Speaking of Finlay, the fact that they separated him from Hornswoggle is likely a sign that they plan to turn him heel soon. I like the addition of Hurricane Helms to the roster, and would love to see a series Bourne/Helms matches. It’s funny, when Sugar Shane Helms first broke in during the later WCW days, he was pretty much the equivalent of Bourne today; young, talented, fast, and with a killer finish (the Vertebreaker) to boot. I actually like the idea of the ECW brand being a developmental area of sorts, where the younger talent can hone their skills until they “graduate” to one of the main shows, ala Miz and Morrison.

Smackdown: SD looks like it could be a real good show. Jericho is so damn good on the microphone right now that I wouldn’t be surprised to see him take Edge’s spot as the show’s top heel. When Jericho was feuding with HBK, I would actually track down clips of Raw just to watch him cut promos. No disrespect, but I’ve never thought to myself, “Hmm, I wonder what HHH said last night?” I just haven’t.



While the midcarders on Raw have virtually no chance of breaking through that bulletproof glass ceiling, the guys on SD have a legitimate chance to make a splash. Aside from maybe Taker, the main eventers don’t seem to have problems putting people over. Here’s to hoping that they pull the trigger on John Morrison or Shelton Benjamin, preferably both. Raw wins in terms of star power, but purely from a wrestling perspective, SD could potentially rock.

Hare Jordan I

I like them. Simple & clean, just like Hikki. Call me crazy, but I’d actually rather have a pair of the Lola version. Too bad it looks like they only come in kids/women sizes. In reality, I wear less than 50% of my shoes anyway, so maybe it wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to buy a pair just to have them. Crazy talk, I know.

Tekken vs Virtua Fighter?

According to Namco’s Katsuhiro Harada, a Tekken vs Virtua Fighter game remains a legitimate possibility, with concepts from a potential engine already being tested. Interesting. Several potential issues immediately spring to mind, most notably the fact that Virtua Fighter focuses on quicker juggles and mix-ups, while knockdowns and wakeup games are a bigger element of Tekken. The 10-strings in Tekken will also have to be either incorporated or thrown out, but I personally haven’t used dial-a-combo since Tekken 3. Graphically, I’m a little more partial to how clean everything looks in Virtua Fighter, but I haven’t seen a game that illustrates impact quite as well as Tekken does. Either way, I don’t think that aesthetics are going to be an issue. Having a “Groove” system ala Capcom vs SNK would be a dream here, as it would allow VF players to have a block button and still give the Tekken players full reign over their left and right attacks. The good news is that there would likely only be 2 Grooves to work with, but given the massive move lists that are featured in 3D fighters, you run the risk of drastically condensing a character’s move set by eliminating a single button. An idea would be to add a 5th button that would serve as block under the VF Groove, and simply be non-functional under the Tekken Groove. Or better yet, you could use it to activate the Rage system that Tekken 6 implemented, but that would probably spawn a whole host of other balancing issues. In a perfect world, the game would be done Tekken Tag Tournament style, with 20 characters from VF (its full roster), and a selection of 20 “All-Stars” from the Tekken series.

I can’t see the game happening anytime soon, but given that Namco is apparently a willing partner, and that Sega hasn't been doing anything substantial with the VF franchise aside from last year’s VF5R, I don’t see why the crossover title couldn’t eventually become a reality.

うたばん & Yaguchi, 4 Years Later

Listening to:
矢口真里／エアバンド
「青春 僕」

Utaban got moved to Sunday nights, which is nice because it’s probably the one night of the week that I’m almost certain to be at home. I watched the entire two-hour special despite having several more important things to do, and Utaban still edges HEY!HEY!HEY! as the most entertaining music variety show on television. Yaguchi Mari was on for the first time in ages last night. I’m not a real huge fan of hers, but I tuned in primarily because I miss the magic of those old Utaban/Morning Musume segments. It’s no secret that Utaban host Ishibashi Takaaki is a huge supporter of Morning Musume, and the aforementioned Yaguchi went as far as to call him the “father” of the group in an interview several years ago. If you think about it, Ishibashi really did do everything in his power to keep the group relevant, consistently having them on the show even after their record sales began to plummet a few years ago. I could be mistaken, but I’m fairly certain that they appeared on Utaban to promote every one of their singles until their 36th or 37th, which broke the streak sometime last year. The reality is that the girls haven’t drawn big ratings in years, and Ishibashi and the producers of Utaban were really doing them a huge favor by continuing to feature them on the show for as long as they did. Even last night, Ishibashi dropped a couple of borderline irrelevant Morning Musume and Country Musume jokes during an EXILE segment. Their time as powerhouses in the industry are likely done for good, but it’s kind of nice to know that people like Ishibashi are still trying to keep Morning Musume's name out there.

Back to Yaguchi, her new song is okayish at best, but she’s probably good enough as a television personality to remain in showbiz for as long as she wants. Past or present, you can’t really say the same about too many of the group’s other members.

Christmas Came Early...

...because these things are so damn COLD.




I'd rather not discuss how much I spent on these puppies.

Wrestlemania 25 Preview

I haven't really been following the product (for obvious reasons), but I always find myself getting interested again when the big show rolls around. Just on paper - and maybe it's just me - this card is looking pretty darn good. Aside from the annual Diva trash, I don't really see a match that doesn't look to have some degree of entertainment value. If there's one issue that I have with the card, it's the absence of an ECW title match. How hard would it be to give 10 minutes to Jack Swagger vs Evan Bourne? I don't really have much of an opinion on Swagger, but considering how over Bourne is, there's no reason why he shouldn't be somewhere on the card. Seriously, he was made for the Money in the Bank match.

The card:

Chris Jericho vs. Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and Rowdy Roddy Piper w/Ric Flair
What's this all about? Jericho is the company's best heel aside from maybe (MAYBE) Orton, and you have him fighting a bunch of senior citizens? I don't really see the logic, but maybe I just missed something.

Extreme Rules Match: Matt Hardy vs. Jeff Hardy
Should be a good one. Might have been a good idea to keep the ECW title on Matt to give the belt some visibility, but oh well.

25-Diva "Miss WrestleMania" Battle Royal: Known Participants - Melina, Maryse, Mickie James, Gail Kim, Michelle McCool, Nikki Bella, Brie Bella, Alicia Fox, Kelly Kelly, Maria, Eve Torres, Katie Lea Burchill, Beth Phoenix, Layla El, Rosa Mendes, Candice Michelle, Natalya Neidhart, Jillian Hall, Tiffany, Sunny, Torrie Wilson, Molly Holly, Victoria and Jackie Gayda-Haas
Your obligatory bathroom break of the night. Actually, I take that back. Molly Holly!? At least she'll bring a little bit of awesome to the match. I still miss the days when Trish was still around and Mickie was still crazy.

Money in the Bank Ladder Match: CM Punk vs. Kane vs. Mark Henry vs. MVP vs. Shelton Benjamin vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Christian vs. Finlay
OH SNAP! MARK HENRY IN A LADDER MATCH! MARK HENRY IN A LADDER MATCH! That's reason enough to purchase this show. I don't really care who goes over in any of the other matches, but I'm pulling for my man, the Instant Classic Captain Charisma Christian Cage in this one.

Winner Takes All – WWE Tag Team Titles vs. World Tag Team Titles – Unified Tag Team Title LUMBERJACK Match: The Miz and John Morrison © vs. Carlito and Primo Colon ©
No shit, a Tag Title match at Wrestlemania? When was the last time we had one of those? I could do without the lumberjack stipulation, but I like that they're at least trying to make the Tag Titles look important.

IC Title Match: JBL © vs. Rey Mysterio
That, and we get an Intercontinental Title match as well? What's going on here? Kind of weird having a couple of former world champs fighting over the IC title, but I guess both these guys deserve their spot on the show in shape or form.

The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels
There are a few matches that have match of the night potential, and this is definitely one of them. It's kind of scary when you consider how good these guys still are at this point in their careers. Can't see any reason to end the Taker streak at this point, so the outcome isn't really much of a mystery. Should still be a real good match.

World Title Match: Edge © vs. The Big Show vs. John Cena
To be honest, I'm pretty lukewarm on all of these guys. Should be a pretty fun match at the least, with Edge or Cena likely going over. I'm actually not even sure what Show is doing in there.

WWE Title Match: HHH © vs. Randy Orton
Looks like the build for this one has been pretty well done. I'm starting to buy Orton as a sinister, conniving bastard, whereas I used to think he was just a dickhead. So yeah, it looks like he's been improving a lot as a heel. Logic suggests that Orton goes over and the Legacy runs Raw for a while, but again, you never know with HHH involved.

The Red Cyclone, Dominant Again

Street Fighter IV - Character Ranking (according to Tougeki)

SS: Sagat, C. Viper, Akuma, Zangief
S: Ryu, Balrog, (JPN M. Bison), Rufus, Blanka
A: Chun-Li, M. Bison (JPN Vega), Ken, Dhalsim, Abel, E. Honda, El Fuerte
B: Vega (JPN Balrog), Guile



Can't say that I'm surprised. I'd been using Zangief and Sagat as my mains, with Vega (Balrog) a distant third. It's been a while since Zangief has been this dominant and fun to use. Remember when people would groan when you chose Zangief and had a semblance of skill? The Red Cyclone is back, baby. And while we're at it, here are the latest Bloodline Rebellion tier lists:

Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion - Character Ranking

S: Steve
A: Lars, Lili, Lee, Law
B: Asuka, Armor King, Eddy, Ganryu, Xiaoyu, Julia, Jin, Devil Jin, Hwoarang, Feng Wei, Bryan, Bruce, Heihachi, Baek, Marduk, Roger Jr.
C: Anna, Alisa, Kazuya, King, Kuma/Panda, Christie, Jack-6, Dragunov, Nina, Paul, Bob, Lei, Leo, Wang
D: Zafina, Miguel, Yoshimitsu, Raven

Looks like Steve Fox is going to be sitting pretty at the top. I've yet to play the game, but I'm assuming that his priority is off the charts again. I'm glad that they seemed to have toned down Bob and Kaz, and really glad that Xiaoyu is at least in the middle of the pack. Can't wait for this thing to finally release on consoles later this year.

To close out all the talk about fighting games, I've been playing Soul Calibur IV during my free time. I was initially keen on the idea of having Vader in the game, but I haven't even used him yet because he just seems so damn out of place. I've actually been trying to recondition myself to use Ivy again. I did major damage with her in SCII, but I guess I just got frustrated with how different she handled in SCIII.



The overall game feels a bit too much like its predecessor (again), but that doesn't stop it from being a crazy good fighter.

I Only Drink The Finest Breastmilks

Breastmilks, you make my daaayaaaayyy!



Just saying.

Flyer Than The Rest Of 'Em

Listening to:
Wale
Nike Boots

The new semester starts up next week, and I've been busy doing a whole lot of zilch at work. I sat at my desk for close to eight hours today, thoroughly hungover and with absolutely nothing to do. I'm by no means depressed, but you have to admit that those are some pretty depressing circumstances. Oh well. I've learned to take the bad days at work with the good ones. More importantly (ha), I've been waiting for the delivery guy to show up with my late birthday gift to myself.

Hint: Wale's got 'em.