Mother's 50th & Friendship

Well, another week down, and it's gotten REALLY hot. My mom turned 50 on Saturday, and I did my best to make her feel appreciated by making a photo slide show on our TV while playing 'Atonement' from FFXIII in the background. Both my parents quite like it. Much better than getting a card => Today, the church went food crazy as usual, and my mom received alot of gifts and a big cake. I handled drinks, as usual, and surprisingly alot were left over. I even got to keep my own stash, and i got a new shiny silver opener!! OH YEAH. Haha. My family's so old. Both my parents are now 50, my sister's 20, and i'll be 18 soon. Wow.

Anywayz, while watching Higurashi, i've noticed that i central element is that of friendship, like many other anime. As cheesy as it sounds, it focuses on 'the power of friendship' pretty much. However, it doesn't do it in a cliche way, but rather engages you with Keichii being the strong leader, and all each of the characters do to try and help each other and solve problems. Simultaneously, I managed to help a friend of mine by giving advice for the problems they had. It's been a while since i've done so, heh. To think, there are so many friends suffering, so many people agonizing in solitude, feeling that no one can reach out to them. I think that helping friends can make a difference as long as you're willing to try, to let other people in, and to stand up and try to change your situation. I don't know where i'd be without my friends. True, clashes do occur between friendship groups, and at times it feels that everyone's against you. But sometimes, it takes real maturity to rise above that and realize that people are people, and there's no reason to distrust them. Unless they're untrustworthy, haha. Oh well.

1 more week to go before Expo!!! OH HECK YEAH. So excited.

Ninja Blade & Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

From one hack n slash to the next; after completing Bayonetta, i decided to play Ninja Blade. Yes, it's a mix between Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry and God of War, but it's a pretty fun game. To an extent. It starts off ok, as it's heavily based on QTE. But it literally EXPLODES with QTE as the game goes on. It's fun, but it got REALLY annoying by the end. To the point that despite how much funner the game got later on, it was equally annoying and I won't play it again. An ok experience though. BUUUT, the greatest part of it wasn't the hack and slashy bits, nor was it the QTE. You could CUSTOMIZE THE COLOURS of the main character. So basically, customize your ninja. I made him totally black, with shiny white armor, a blue mask and red scarf. I thought he looked quite sick, especially when I did ninja run; some LUDICROUS SPEED you can do just by holding right trigger, and it goes on FOREVER. I thought it was an interesting addition to a game that probably would have been slightly uninteresting otherwise. Although being able to use a large blade as a surfboard was PRETTY FRICKIN AWESOME.

In other news; i decided to check out Higurashi, aka, 'When They (Cicadas) Cry'. WHAT an anime. It's not necessarily a powerhouse, or one of the most popular. But it is quite entertaining, with enough clubbings to go around. Literally, clubbings. I mean, i can't even explain all that happens. But let's just say there's something awfully twisted going on in the village of Hinamizawa. Pretty dark and pretty interesting. I'm on series 2 now, and I'm yet to see how they explain things.

Only 2 weeks left now: HEAVEN OR HELL - Duel 2 - Let's Rock!!

Bayonetta & Episode Two

What a surprise. After playing the demo, first at Expo and then on my xbox, i thought Bayonetta would be an ok, but under-appreciated game, like many other hack and slashes i know. But instead, i find out that it's got SO many good reviews and true enough, the game is FREAKIN amazing. I didn't expect that. Playing through it, i seriously think it's pretty much Devil May Cry 5: Viewtiful Joe 3. It has Hideki Kamiya written all over it, and it's done SO well. Even the bits that weren't hack and slash made the package all the more entertaining. And the GRAPHICS absolutely blew me away. SOOOOO many cutscenes, SO many big bosses and boss battles, and SOOO much Bayonetta ;) Although, i'm not as into it as the friend i borrowed it from, but it is a pretty amazing game. DMC still has a place in my heart, even though this is game is better than DMC4. I'm really glad i played it, because it served a very, VERY good distraction.

Finally receiving the Orange Box from my friend, i managed to play and finish Half Life 2: Episode Two. It was good. Heh. Come on, it's Valve, could it be not good? It's more of the same that made 2 and episode One good. As in; FPS shoot-outs, puzzle solving, survival horror, and a mysterious story that unravels before you. It was probably the most action packed out of the 3 games so far, but no really the hardest (despite the end battle which really tried my patience ¬_¬). All in all, it was a good experience, and i can't wait for episode Three. Or perhaps HL3.

Anyway, 3 weeks left of 6th from. HERE'S THE CLINCHER

Chevelle & Yearbook Poll

I decided to re-listen to the entire discography for Chevelle, one of my favourite bands which are acutally kind of under-rated/ under-exposed, and I don't know anyone out of my friends who has heard of them. I think they're quite awesome, and their songs date quite far back. The song that got me into them was 'Send The Pain Bellow'. I'm not sure when i first heard that, but i only remembered the chorus which was "much like suffocating". Yes, i know this all sounds very...emo. But Chevelle is far from that. They're kind of like energetic hard-rock with alot of bass, meaningful and ambiguous lyrics as well as some slower songs. Going through their songs again and i only gained a few more favourites, but i decided to make a playlist of my top songs from all the albums. Admittedly though, 'The Clincher' is still my current favourite. 'Send...' got me into them, and now this is the one i usually think of and listen to when i'm in a 'chevelle' mood. Although thinking about them and how their albums are organized made me paranoid about a few inner issues I had, I still managed to thoroughly enjoy the band yet again =>

This week, we received a 'Yearbook Poll' full of questions regarding out student body, and the answers would appear in the Yearbook when we get it. Some questions were reasonable and cool to think about (although quite tricky to pick one person!!) such as 'best looking male', 'best looking female', 'biggest joker' or 'most legendary ginger'. Hard ones to answer were, at least for me, 'most likely to kill a joke' and 'friend of the year'. But by far, the one question that really got every was 'Rear of the year'; basically asking us who had the nicest butt. Now THAT spawned some interesting conversations, all good fun though. Apparently, i got some votes for 'most likely to become prime minister' and 'friend of the year'. Prime minster? Heck no. A certain man i know fits the description MUCH better, haha. Gettin votes for the friend one was quite nice, cause honestly i doubt I coulda got votes for anything else.

In any case, i only have ONE MORE MONTH of actual school left. This means revision and essay practice. After that, Expo and my birthday!!! Then of course, the exams. LET'S DO THIS