Rising up from the ashes

A few weeks ago I abruptly decided to forgo all non-productive internet usage so I could focus on my upcoming finals. I didn't manage to stick to this perfectly, but I did completely avoid blogs for that time.  Now, though, my uni year is finally over, and I can spend as much time as I want on internet stuff without feeling guilty about it. This happy state of affairs will continue until early January, so I've got quite a decent holiday ahead of me.

But it's not like I managed to do nothing but study for the last few weeks. I've been playing a bit of The Genius of Sappheiros, a Touhou doujin game released a couple of Comikets ago. It's recently gotten an English translation, and I just downloaded it and started playing a few days ago. It's pretty fun so far, though I'm still in the early stages.

The burning hells are populated mostly by giant feet.

The game's a dungeon crawler with turn-based combat when you run into an enemy group. You can also sneak by them but then you miss out on their delicious experience. The boss fights can be pretty tricky but dying isn't really a big deal. You lose any items you'd picked up from your current run of the dungeon, but you keep all the experience you gained.

The storyline has all the subtlety and complexity that you'd expect from a Touhou game: A strange mist is making Youkai sick and Reimu is going to find out who, by beating up everyone in Gensokyo until someone admits to it.

The sprite art is great, as is the music (as expected of a Touhou game). I'd recommend it if you've got some time that you need to get rid of.


Another time-waster that I've recently taken to is the live broadcasts on Nico Nico Douga. I can't even explain why I like these, but there's something cathartic about listening to Japanese girls doing stuff. In some ways it's the "cute girls doing cute things" idea taken further. A lot of them do imitations of anime characters (the K-On girls are especially common), some of them sing with varying degrees of skill, and some just talk about their day. It sounds all sorts of stupid just typing this out, but it can be great to have on in the background when trying to do other things.

Notably, I haven't been able to waste any time on Dota 2 because I still don't have a bloody beta key. It's a bit frustrating to see some people I know get keys just because they begged constantly until someone gave them one. I refuse to do that, but I'd still love to play, especially now that I'm on holidays. Valve claim they'll be sending out new waves pretty frequently now though, so with a bit of luck I'll be in before too long.

And now I'm going to go and catch up with anime from this season. There's a surprising number of shows that I'm really enjoying, and have me actively looking forward to the next episode, so it seems like a pretty good season so far.

Autumn Break

...doesn't sound as catchy as spring break, I've got to admit. I'm on my mid-semester break this week, but it's a bit of a non-event. My course at uni, presumably to be special and unique, has its break a good few weeks before the rest of the uni. Considering that most of the people I get along with at uni aren't actually doing my course, this means I'll be spending my week off doing exactly nothing. Which, to be honest, is probably what would've happened regardless. Not that that'll stop me from complaining; a little self-righteous indignation is a nice thing to express now and then.

I'm not great at planning ahead, so I decided to figure out some 'goals' for the rest of the year. I didn't really come up with much, namely:

• Keep passing my course at uni
• Go to C81

One needs time, the other money. I've got all the time in the world, but it's the process of actually applying it properly that I struggle with. Having said that, I'm not terribly worried by this one. I've managed to get through four and a bit years of uni so far, so I know I tend to get through it somehow.

The second goal is a lot more appealing though. I went to C79 over my summer holidays and loved it - I got some great loot and even managed to get it all through Australian Customs without incident. The only other convention I'd ever been to was the local one (I foolishly thought the dealer's area might have some good stuff, turns out there are people in this world who can look you straight in the eye and tell you that a Miku plushie will be $90 thank you very much), so C79 was quite the experience in comparison.

My only funding source is the student welfare payments I get (which are pretty damn generous, but not quite enough to cover another overseas holiday) so I looked into getting some work. The result of that is that I'm now spending a couple of hours a week adjudicating high-school debates. It's easy money - I watch them argue for an hour then tell them who argued better. And it's $25 a debate. If I keep this up as well as eating pretty cheaply a few more nights a week then I think I'm in with a shot at making it to C81, which would be :awesome:. Incidentally, kangaroo sausages are really cheap, so I think I'll be eating more of them from now on.

Since that's all pretty boring shit, I'll at least leave you with a terrible cameraphone photo of the Touhou cards I got last week. I bought them after seeing someone else put photos of them on jaypee. 

Now all I need is someone to play cards with ;_;

The Rainbow Gatekeeper

I've actually had Meiling for a few weeks now, but I haven't had the chance to really take her out of the box and have a good look at her until now. My room is cluttered enough that finding enough room to take out a figure and set it up properly is no small task. I don't have a proper display cabinet either so I can only have a few figures out at a time, the rest relegated to their boxes until I rotate through them.

Anyway.

As I'm sure you all know, Hong Meiling (紅美鈴 [that last kanji isn't showing up right for me, maybe it's the font], a.k.a. China) is the beautiful and reliable gatekeeper to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. In her present capacity, however, she's been demoted to guarding my desk against intruders.