Not Much of a Duder

It’s been over two years since I joined up as a Giant Bomb member. Back then, I was able to squeeze in watching the content the Giant Bomb staff were producing, mostly with quick looks, live streams, reviews, and articles, while listening to a few Bombcasts here and there. Since then, my workload increased tremendously and my Giant Bomb content consumption has decreased dramatically. So far in 2014, all I’ve done is reading reviews, read a couple of articles here and there, and catch a live stream here and there. I feel bad to be a fan of Giant Bomb since I’m missing out on so much content in the past year. I’ll still support the crew and let my membership renew when it comes up soon, though if I fail to catch on with the site’s content, I may withdraw my premium membership in 2015.

Not Much of a Talker

Along with my lack of Giant Bomb content consumption, I’ve been withdrawn in the two internet chat room groups I’m sticking around in. I just don’t have much to bring to the conversation. I’ll come in, say hi and that’ll be it for the most part. In Mike’s group, I may say a few other things, but otherwise I’ll watch on the sidelines while others discuss whatever’s on their mind. I could say something about manga, other video games, music, and whatever, but I haven’t experienced as much content overall compared to the others have gone through. I like what the folks talk about and pick up some perspective over their thoughts on a particular topic. It’s great to listen, though I’m still nervous to speak up… about random things.

Winter and Working Blues

Fucking winter this year. I don’t mind snow as long as it doesn’t frequently pour dumploads of snow and hamper my weekday commutes to work. Although we didn’t have that blizzard storm where a foot or more of snow hammers the area for a day or two, it was really annoying to go through a week where the area gets hit with six to twelve inches of snow. It was tough the times I did trek to the office, though I did stay home one day when the roads weren’t plowed in the morning. The snow wasn’t the only things that made this past winter really miserable to deal with, the extremely cold temperatures added to the stress. I don’t think I ever experienced temperatures THIS COLD in Philadelphia before, and it wasn’t fun to trek the short two block walk getting outside of train station to my office building. I hope the Spring season stays relatively warm and comfortable temperature wise.

Work does not stop for anyone. Even on the day where I failed to enter the office, our supervisors encouraged us to work from home. (I didn’t bother by the way.) The higher-ups were keen to keep business running as much as possible despite all the hardships. There was one week where the President/CEO instituted the “Back on Track” week initiative, where he asked all employees to work their ass off to make up the delays suffered on all projects. Folks were really pouring in the hours that week. It hasn’t been easy on my front, asking my project managers to get their billing reviews done in a timely matter, taking care of co-workers questions and requests, losing my intern earlier than expected, squeezing in time to get the transferred admin to pick up the intern’s tasks, and other stuff.

I haven’t done much job searching in this quarter. I did a little bit here and there and didn’t find a lot of opportunities that suited my credentials. I also had one head-hunter recruiter company call me directly at my office and I did my best to rebuff them for a few reasons. The thing that’s making it hard is that I don’t want to do the same tasks that I’m currently doing, yet I got squat on actual accounting experience. Ugh. I’ve been debating about going to graduate school, but not sure if I can take on additional debt while I’m slowly keeping a decent balance and helping out my family with whatever expenditures that want me to take care of.

Highlight Completed Game of Q1 2014

This one’s easy for me to pick, it’s Bayonetta. I do feel bad that I took the easy way out and played through the game on easy difficulty, the game still shown enough to me on why it’s a widely exceptional game to many people’s eyes. There isn’t much to discuss with the story and the supporting characters, but Bayonetta is quite the character. She just produces so much presence throughout the game, whether it’s her usual sarcastic/joking mood, or when things get heated. The action has a nice balance of patience and balls-out action. You’ll be crazy attack combinations of punches, kicks, bullets, weapon attacks, witch attacks, and executions against hordes of enemies. In the middle of the chaos, you can wait for the opportunity to dodge an enemy’s attack at the last moment to trigger witch time, where it slows the enemies to a crawl and allows Bayonetta to unleash devastating attacks and damage them. The bosses are huge, nasty, and mostly fun to fight against. If I could get back into the mood, I would tackle Bayonetta again on normal difficulty to see if I can handle the chaos on that setting. Instead, I got my Bayonetta lore in and looking forward to its sequel on the Wii U.

Q1 Video Game Additions/Subtractions

Subtractions

• Liberation Maiden [3DS]
• Remember Me [PS3]
• Bayonetta [X360]
• Code of Princess [3DS]
• Gravity Rush [VITA]

Additions

• Alan Wake’s American Nightmare [X360] (XBL Sale)
• Bioshock Infinite [PS3] (PSN Plus)
• BlazBlue: ChronoPhantasma (Limited Edition) [PS3]
• Bravely Default (Collector’s Edition) [3DS]
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze [Wii U]
• Driver: San Francisco [X360] (XBL Sale)
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West [PS3] (PSN Sale)
• Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions [Vita] (PSN Sale)
• The Guided Fate Paradox [PS3] (Retail Out of Print)
• The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary [3DS] (Nintendo eShop Free Game)
• Lumines Electric Symphony [Vita] (PSN Sale)
• Mirror’s Edge [X360] (XBL Sale)
• Phantom Breaker: Battle Limit [X360] (XBL Sale)
• Stella Deus [PS3] (PSN Sale)

Highlight Music Album of Q1 2014

I’ve never been in a relationship, so I haven’t felt the supposed pain from breaking up from on. I’ve experienced a lot from musicians who expressed how they felt through their music. In Q1 2014, Marissa Nadler - July really stood out on how she felt as her relationship crumbled. Marissa’s vocals and acoustic guitar are up-front on the mix and express on how shaken up she is. But what makes the album really work is the subtle background instrumentation and production. The backing instrumentals and production really makes the music sound like her voice and guitar are trying their hardest to pierce through the darkness. Each song feel like there’s a sucking black hole behind the vocals and guitars, the haunting space where unhealthy thoughts probably reside and may be how Nadler wanted to express on hard this breakup was for her.

Notable Q1 2014 Album Pickups

• Belle and Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister
• Big Black – Songs About Fucking
• Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe
• J Dilla – Donuts
• Marissa Nadler - July
• Real Estate – Atlas
• Wild Beasts – Present Tense

Q2 2014 Goals and Such

Video Games

I shouldn’t have gone after the true ending of Bravely Default. I would’ve been done with the game if I broke one crystal. I barely beat the Airy boss battle and found myself severely underleveled to tackle the final bosses in Bravely Default’s true ending. In the meantime, I’ll be grinding for a long time at the game’s optional dungeon to bring the characters up to a reasonable level before I tackle the final bosses. Like what many others have said, the second half of Bravely Default really hampers what was a mostly enjoyable gaming experience. Bravely Default’s battle system and soundtrack are great. Hopefully I’ll get it done sooner or later, as I plan to tackle the next JRPG in my long backlog pile.

I have not done a good job restraining myself in adding so many games. I hope to restrain myself better in the upcoming quarter, but I would not be surprised if I end up adding more again through sales. I have Demon Gaze on pre-order that’ll be coming in April, and pick up Lightning Returns for my brother once the game goes on sale at a more reasonable price. I may also bite on Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD. But my goal in Q2 2014 is to refrain from adding more games and knock out as many games as I can.

Q2 Probable Games

• Demon Gaze (Limited Edition) [Vita]
• Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII [PS3]

Other Items

There’s a bunch of music albums that I am interested in that are being released this quarter, plus the annual price-gouging event called Record Store Day on April 19. I can see myself go overboard this quarter on music albums.

I picked up tickets to go see Slint in Philadelphia on May 1. Last year was a nice uptick for my brother and I attending music concerts, but it looks like this year we’ll be attending fewer concerts.

There’s a few manga releases that I’m definitely getting that are expected to be released this quarter. The ones I’m looking forward to reading are Nijigahara Photograph (already released but ordered with next title) and Whispered Words/Sasameki Koto (expected in May).

I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get this particular idea going, but I want to run a personal blog series called “The Longest Grind”, where I’ll post on my personal struggles on getting through a JRPG or playing that particular fighting game. I focus on those two genres because my mind is slowly disintegrating in creativity, reaction, and skills and wonder how I still get through a JRPG or stick with a fighting game even though I am ass at them. The first games I have in mind to discuss are Bravely Default and Persona 4 Arena.

MORE JOB SEARCHING!!!

Thanks

Thanks for reading. (I started up this thing if anyone’s interested.)