Big John

My visited my Dad in the hospital yesterday after he had knee surgery.  He’s doing ok and actually left for home today!  It was cool to hear the actual time for surgery was relatively short and how it went without any issues.

He went to a hospital that opened only a few years ago, so everything was built with current standards.  His room was rad as he had a flat screen television, a window, warm desert brown painted walls, a sofa, and a room all to himself.  It looked more like a resort room than it did a hospital room.  I’m glad he got it as he was able to recover in peace and in comfort.

In addition, he had his own private bathroom, complete a shower.  I had to use it because I drank a lot of water before leaving for the hospital, but I didn’t know how scary the toilet was going to be…

Just look at the size of that thing!  Actually, this photo doesn’t really do a good job of portraying just how large it is when you see it in person.  It was extremely intimidating as it occupies the entire corner of the room.  Not only is it tall, but it’s very, very wide.  It flushes with authority and I’m sure I would have been sucked in if I hadn’t taken a few steps back after I flushed it.

There was a sticker on it that read “Big John.”  The name definitely lives up to the reputation.

Claim to fame

Two things Southern California is known famous for was on television earlier today: a high-speed pursuit and an In-N-Out Burger resturant.

Fast cars and fast food is what we do best here in SoCal.

Oh thank heaven

Help!  I’m addicted to these dumb iced coffees from 7-eleven.  I’ve been buying them all week long and I’m rapidly running out of money!  I don’t even care for coffee or the taste, but thank goodness it’s Friday so the routine can be broken.  I think next week I’ll prep ahead and just bring a container of chocolate milk to work instead.

Space Ninja

Strider 2

No doubt about it: ninjas are totally rad and Strider 2 proves it in a way video games can only do: with fast arcade action that has you slicing and dicing your enemies with such break neck speeds that it’ll be over before you know it.  Really, the game is super short, but the action is so concentrated it’s like getting a full days worth of caffeine from a small 5 ounce bottle.

First impression

I’ve only seen two episodes, but I’m loving Kill la Kill.  Didn’t know this show existed until they began airing it on Toonami two weeks ago, but apparently it originally aired in Japan back in 2013, so in the grand scheme of things, I’m late to the party.  Not that it matters, since this whole website is based on knowing I’m always writing about stuff way past its inception.

I guess I’m becoming a fan (or that I’ve always been a fan and didn’t know it) of Hiroyuki Imaishi’s work because I also enjoyed Gurren Lagann, his involvement with FLCL, and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.  Although the story was lackluster, I also thought Dead Leaves was an interesting film too, so I’ll include that as well.

If you don’t know Hiroyuki Imaishi’s work, it will be pretty obvious once you do see it.  The audience his stories tend to focus towards are for boys in their teens because they are mainly comedies with an extra heavy dose of action and ladies in skimpy clothing.  But the real eye catcher is in the animation; as he tends to have a lot of flair in it.  Kill la Kill includes all of the above and seems to do it well.  While I am enjoying all aspects of the show, I’m taking a liking to the climactic battle scene towards the end of each episode because of their over the top, ridiculous, and heavy action scenes which are normally crammed into a one minute or less time frame.  This short time frame allows the animators to go way crazy with the battle scenes and add a lot of polish and originality to where each frame can be seen as a work of art.

Hopefully the rest of the season is as good as these two episodes are, and considering the track record of my appreciation for his work, I think I will be enjoying it.

State of the season

Phew, it’s hot!  It was 74 degrees when I ran some errands during my lunch break, but it felt more like 85.  The only problem is…its February!

I get it, sunny skies are a staple of Southern California, but since we’re currently in a major drought I was hoping for some rain and to have winter be more…well, like winter.  This is a stark contrast to the east coast where they are buried to their eyeballs in snow and have forecasts that don’t seem to be rising above the 40 degree mark.

Since they have more snow then they know what to do with, why don’t we build an aqueduct that connects from the east coast to the west and take advantage of their supplement seasons?  It sure would benefit us in California right about now!

Fatal errors for both body and web

Apologies for not posting much lately because 1, I’m feeling under the weather, and 2, I’m still recovering from the near heart attack I experienced on Saturday when I updated the CMS.  It was a doozy of an update (very big) and when it was all finished, the website was throwing a screen full of error messages.  I felt this would be the end of the website when I figured out what the problem was.  Once I resolved one of the errors, the rest of them resolved as well.  Phew!

Scares aside, the update was a welcoming one.  The major change to the CMS was the interface to the admin page.  While I wasn’t caring for it when they were showing screenshots of it, my opinion for it changed once I stared using it.  Thanks again to the Bolt team for creating such a wonderful CMS.  It’s simple enough for basic users to get started with, but super flexible for expert web developers to do stuff that’s probably way over my head.

This game is not for shabazos

Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble

Actually, this is the third game in the Kenka Bancho series from Japan.  THIS IS A FANTASTIC GAME!!!  I know, I’m hyping it up, but I was amazed of how well this game was when I finally got my hands on a copy.  Actually, other than a puzzle game like Lumines, this game has been replayed the most from my PSP collection.  It’s a shame that it appears like this is going to be the only game in the series to be ported to the states.  Atlus, thank you for taking the risk and bringing this one over state side.  If you decide to bring any more here to the US, you’ll definitely have a customer waiting.

Sweet fancy Moses

I found this online a while ago, but I can’t find the website where I originally found it.  I like to give the creator credit because whoever made it is a freak’n genius!

All about the Nihon

Polygon’s Matt Leone recently posted his latest cover story, Life in Japan - “An 18-part look inside Japan's game industry: Night Cry, Scalebound, Final Fantasy 15, Street Fighter 5, Summer Lesson and more.”  To say the least: it’s an article worth your time in checking out.

This is a beefy read that is full of interesting interviews from developers throughout the Japanese game industry.  It’s like a collection of mini features connected with the same theme, so if you want, you can read it in bite sized chucks over a period of time like I did.  It took me a period of over three days to read the whole thing, but was good from start to finish.  My personal favorites include the interview with Yu Suzuki – who’s been quiet recently, but still busy with big ideas in mind; the Ninja Gaiden reunion that brought together three of the main dudes behind the game (love that jacket Hideo Yoshizawa was sporting); and the inside look of Japan’s popular gaming magazine, Famitsu.

In addition there are a number of illustrations, pictures, and music tracks to pore over from within the feature.  If you were a fan of the 1UP.com cover stories from years ago, then this will be a welcoming treat.