Putting SC4 through it's paces is a curious task. On one hand, it's only been a few years since I played a SoulCalibur game, but on the other, SC3 was an abomination, and I find I have a hard time remembering which characters were in SC3 (Zasalamel and Tira for sure; was dog-faced Setsuka in it, and was her face like a dog before?) and which are new. Mostly I've been dinking around trying to rack up achievement points, though my wife knocked out a bunch I wasn't looking forward to yesterday afternoon, and now I can focus on racking up dough.

I'm also considering trying to flesh out the custom character roster with builds inspired by Geroge R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, which I'm pretty sure leaves me as a lost cause. I liked the series well enough the first time out, but now I'm wholeheartedly addicted to the brutal and savage, yet so effortlessly interconnected, 7 Kingdoms and beyond. There really isn't a better fantasy story that I've ever read. Ever.

Other than that, I went to K-Mart last night looking for a few thigs and found they had some portable iPod Speakers and travel packs super cheap; as an example, I picked up an iStation, which runs for something like $50 at Amazon, for $6, and now have something that's far more serviceable and of greater use to listen to at work; simply the range of sound that powered speakers offer will make my music listening much more rewarding.

On that topic, of late I've been listening to the new Bodies of Water, which I love as a kind of community gospel revival indie beast that echoes faintly of Most Serene Republic and Arcade Fire's Funeral but is mostly just transfixing, and the same stuff as before (Hold Steady, Tapes 'n Tapes) with a few new ones (Jack Johnson's latest, Live's Throwing Copper and Secret Samadhi, the two albums by them I've always thoguht were decent). So much new music means that isntead of running out of eMusic DLs this month, I'm actually coming out a bit ahead, so I may use this to pick up some choice classical tracks that I always consider but never get around to. Or maybe I should work on that 50-album "Saved for Later" bmonster I've created.

The Angels are playing awesome baseball and summer, which hasn't been terrible out here in Iowa, should be breaking in just a matter of weeks before giving away to the beauty of fall (I try not to think about winter, especially after last year, our 4th-snowiest on record - that's a lot of shovelling).

I'm still knocking around a few ideas for actual concentrated blog posts of a topical nature , but I thought I'd throw something up in the interim. Hope August is treating you well.

Yeah, Zasalamel, Tira, and Setsuka were all introduced in SCIII.  Amy also first appeared as a bonus character  in Soul Calibur III, but that appearance was based on the custom character rapier style.  She's a full member of the roster in SCIV.  I think that those characters were really the only new additions to the cast in that game.

Can't say I'm all too interested in SCIV, as I mentioned in a post at the VU, I can't take too much fighting game juice - does look pretty. SFIV for sure.

I need to get a set of travel speakers for my iPod, going to another festival soon, and I want the music to be constant. That said I don't want one that "docks" with my iPod, just give me a 5.1 jack so I can plug it into whatever the hell I want. Can't stand the plethora of sub-standard iPod accessory shite that's all over the place.

As for music, I didn't know Jack Johnson had a new album out so I'll look out for that. Been listening to Chromeo, some funky stuff.