A new year a new begining

Well its a new year and its time for resolutions. I've never been one to make resolutions but since I already had my bucket list I decided to make one resolution this year. And that resolution is to get back to my list.

I have been slacking off for awhile so I figured its a good time to get back on it. Also I took this chance to review the list and take some things off of it. Most of the stuff I took off seemed like things I didn't really want to do. So now the list is a bit shorter but not by much. And the grander things are still on the list.

So now that the new year has begun I've started I started working out again. After spending time trying to workout at the gym I've decided to workout at home for now. I have an elliptical and weights so I should be fine. It just really a matter a being able to keep it up. It would be good if I had someone to workout with but I don't feel like getting someone to workout with me unless they wanted to themselves. So for now its just me which I am fine with.

Besides workout I am also looking into taking dance classes. I want to learn how to salsa and swing. It should be fun as well as good exercise.

Getting back to my list I see that the same problems I had before I still have now. Almost everything on the list cost money. So I guess part of the goal of the list is to be able to find the cheapest way to do everything. Or somehow come into a lot of money. And seeing as I don't have a plan for a lot of money I guess I'm going to have to use the earlier option.

Final Fantasy IV Complete

Well I finally finished FFIV last night. After finishing the game I went to gametrailers.com to watch the video on it. And I remember why it looked familiar. Its because this FF actually came to the US but it was titled Final Fantasy II which is why I think I may have either played it before or at the very least seen someone else play it.

This game was actually pretty tough. Now I don't mind grinding to level up my characters but usually at a certain point in most games I feel like my guys should be overpowered for awhile. But no matter how much I leveled I felt like I was always behind the 8-ball when it came to battles. So I actually spent a few days just grinding to level my characters. Thankfully the DS version has an auto-battle feature which made it much easier but still time consuming.

Another thing that made it tough was the fact that the party was constantly changing. And by that I mean as the story progressed I would lose characters and gain new ones. So going to back to the grinding issue most of that grinding would be rendered mute if the characters I was leveling would not be there later. So it made grinding frustrating. I do admit it made for an interesting story.

So basically I had a really strong main character (the only one I actually had through the entire game) and pretty strong end game characters. Thankfully there wasn't some big surprise party change at the very end. But in the last dungeon even with my high level characters it felt like I had a very good chance to die. But it was the last dungeon so I guess I should have expected that.

And there was one more thing I had a problem with but I didn't know this until I looked up some info on some rare item I had picked up. I feel that as long as you explore all parts of dungeons or whatever the fighting area is you should be able to get most of the things the game has to offer. I found out there are things in the game that you can only get once and if you miss them there is no going back to get them. Or as I call it the Final Fantasy X2 boondoggle.

In Final Fantasy X2 in order to get the 100% best ending you have to do everything in the game exactly as the developers intended it to be done. Now if this just meant exploring all the dungeons and areas throughly I can understand that. But as an example of what is wrong with Final Fantasy X2 you get a percent for sleeping at the beginning and sometimes the end of chapters. Now in pretty much every other RPG sleeping is only used to replenish health and magic. Making it a deal breaker for getting the 100% is very annoying.

In FFIV there are certain things that I missed because I didn't do a certain thing at a very specific moment and I would have no way of getting them. Now I was as through as I could be without wasting useless amounts of time however I still missed things that would have been very useful. For example 1 of the party member has a certain power and when they leave the party you will find this power. Now what is not so obvious is if you add more powers to this character before they leave you get 2 additional powers back when they leave the party. And these 2 additional powers from what I read are insanely good. Now the powers I speak of are one time use only. So if you can only add the specific power to one character. So why would I use the power on a character that more then likely would not be in my party in the future. So thats an example of things that were not obvious.

But with all that I still finished the game. And it did have a really good story. But I'm glad I am finally done with it. On to V.

Final Fantasy IV here we go

Well I've finally gotten back to my Final Fantasy count up. Now I'm up to Final Fantasy VI. The reason I postponed playing this is because I heard that Square was coming out with a Final Fantasy VI remake. My original idea was to play the version that came out on the Final Fantasy Chronicles collection for Playstation. But when I heard that they were doing the remake I decided to take a break and wait a few months for the Nintendo DS version to come out.

So far I've been playing remakes of the Final Fantasy games because its just easier to do on the go then trying to hunt down an NES just to play the titles. Part of me wishes that I had played through the originals so I could play them in all their 8-bit glory. But like I said before it would be a real pain to actually get through them all if I had to find them all. Another thing thats good about playing the remakes is they make up for all the issues and shortcomings the orginals had. This makes for a much more pleasant gaming experience at least in my opinion.

An interesting thing about this game is I think I played it before. Well a verison of it anyway. I vaugely remember playing an emulated version on my computer that was fan subtitled since apparently there wasn't a translated version of it (or something like that). Also I remember reading that people thought it was one of the best Final Fantasys and it was something special because it was a Japan only release. I could be wrong but thats what I somewhat remember. I didn't get to far when I played that time so the begining of the remake seemed familar.

The thing thats interesting about this is it has an auto battle feature which makes grinding much less of a trial. While I don't mind grinding to get stronger I'll take any advantage I can get without straight out cheating.

Attempting, Rethinking, and Modification of the Riding Experience

Well its been awhile since I last write here but then again I haven't really done anything from my list for awhile so there wasn't really anything to say. Well that's not entirely truthful I did do one thing that I did toward something on my list. I purchased a motorcycle.

The reason I purchased the motorcycle was to do the drive up the coast. Well it didn't work out at all like I hoped. My original plan to be able to afford this venture was to buy the motorcycle, learn to ride it, sell my car, and use the motorcycle as my main source of transportation. Well it sounds like a good plan but lets just it basically failed in every possible way.

Well I ended up buying the motorcycle in anticipation of the plan working out so well. And also I wanted time to practice on the bike before switching completely over from the car. So now I had the bike and the car to pay for but it was ok because I was going to sell the car. And since I planned to practice on the bike I needed to get the gear to go with it which was no small investment. And since I wanted to be as safe as possible I made sure to get the best (read as most expensive) gear I could get.

So after I got all my gear I had to get my license. I decided to take the Ridercourse offered by the CHP. Everyone said it was easy or at least easier then taking the test at the DMV. So I went in with all my new gear ready to pass no problem. Well to make a long story short I failed the riding part of the test. I was pretty much completely devastated. I had invested all this money into it and I couldn't even pass the test to ride. I couldn't remember the last time I felt as bad as I did at that moment.

So after that I decided to just practice on my own and retake the test. So I went and got my permit and was all set to ride. Well now that I could legally ride on the streets I finally got on the bike. This is when I figured out that the bike was a bit to tall for me. It wasn't impossible to ride but it made it difficult when dealing with any kind of slant. Well I practiced riding around the neighborhood and it went ok. The only problem I really had was stalling out from a dead stop. I never really got a hold of it. I decided to buy a kit to lower the bike so it would be easier to use when riding.

So finally I decided to take it back to the place I bought it to have the lowering kit placed in. It was my first time on surface streets and I was a bit nervous. Well it went as well as can be expected. I stalled out at pretty much every stop light and was completely embarrassed every time it happen. But I did live through it so that was a plus. After I finally got there I found out that I couldn't have the part put in that day so I would have to come back another day to have it installed. So I had to make the wonderful (sarcasm) trip back home. I did manage to live again but still ran into the same problem of stalling. After getting home though I had an epiphany. I was not having fun riding the bike.

Since I was basically alone here to practice I had no one to ride with and that's pretty important. I didn't think that it would be an issue but that support is very helpful and I was missing out on that. Also I just didn't feel cool when riding on it. I felt more awkward then anything and one of the reasons I wanted the bike was because I thought I would feel cool on it. I know that doesn't sound like a good reason but when your putting your life on the line every time you get on you don't want to feel embarrassed and awkward at the same time.

So now I've decided to stop while I'm ahead (so to speak) and get rid of the bike. I know I can not get all the money I spent back but hopefully I can get enough so its not to much of a problem financially. And since I'm getting rid of the bike I'm taking riding up the coast on a motorcycle off the list. I feel there is no point in doing it if its not going to be fun or anything I want to do.

As much as this has been a monetary fiasco its been a good learning experience. I got rid of the feeling of wanting to ride every time I saw or heard a motorcycle which was bothering me for awhile. And now I know what its like first hand. Now if I can work my way out of the financial hole I've put myself into then everything will be ok. Well the financial hole is not to bad and I can definitely see myself getting out of it. So in all a good expensive lesson.

# 131 - Final Fantasy III Finished

Well I finally finished it and I'm just going to try to keep this is short as possible because I'm quite tired at the moment.

The game was a lot slower passed then the PSP remakes of the first 2 final fantasies. They didn't really add anything to speed up the battles like holding down the button to repeat the last attack. Also at the end of every battle it would go to a victory screen where it would show awarded EXP and GOLD. At first I thought it was slightly interesting but by the second time it was just annoying having to wait while it loaded the separate screen just to tell me what I earned. And while it doesn't seem that bad because its only an extra few seconds those extra seconds add up quickly when you have to go through hundreds upon hundreds of battles. So even from the start I knew it was going to be an unnecessarily long game.

Other then the general slow pace which I wish would have been updated in the remake it was the pretty standard Final Fantasy affair. 4 light warriors that have to save the world from darkness because the light vs. dark balance is out of wack. The stories not bad but like I said before since it felt so slow it was hard to really care I just wanted it to hurry up.

As I said when I started the game I'm playing on kind of a shotty DS so I took advantage of one of the cheats available on my ROM that allowed me to save when ever I want. Usually you can only save on the overworld map and not in dungeons. So I guess I did cheat a little but I still did all the leveling and getting my ass kicked on my own so I don't feel like it was cheating to much. The reason I bring this up is because one of my friends is also playing the game but she does not have the luxury of my being able to save anywhere I like.

Normally in a RPG this is not a problem because the game designers usually understand that being able to save at certain parts of the game so the player does not become so frustrated at not being able to save after walking around a dungeon for a few hours. Also the designers usually allow you to save before a point of no return area. Well apparently the designers for this one decided to stop caring around the last 3rd of the game. And just become completely masochistic for the last dungeon (or this case tower) of the game.

So let me lay this down for you. You get to this tower and your pretty sure that its probably the last area however you don't know how long it is. Since its a tower you got a pretty good feeling that the boss is not just going to be up the elevator and just to the left. And you would be right. You spend your time fighting through waves of enemies as you trudge your war torn party up and up and up and well you get the idea.

During all this time the party hasn't come across a save point, an inn, a 7 eleven, or even so much as a hot dog vendor. When you finally reach the top you get to the portal to hell (well not hell exactly but large amounts of evil await on the other side). By this point you still haven't been able to save since you started the insane journey up the tower. So at this point your thinking, "Well the designers (or even re-designers since this is a remake) wouldn't have me face large amounts of evil without letting me save or at least warning me that I could never return to this wonderful tower of death".

And you would be wrong.

They let you walk right into the evil face first without so much as batting an eye. And its not until you think, "Hmm maybe I should go back outside of this tower of death so I can save and catch a breather" that you find out that there is no going back. So if you were on the verge of death before entering then you are in so many words "Screwed".

No warning no nothing just punch to the nuts screwed.

So from here you fight more evil except now theres more darkness around. And eventually you get to the last boss who is more then happy to kick your ass and send you back to your last save which you made decades ago outside of the tower.

What a fist full of frustration.

And unless you read the gamefaq you probably had no idea this was coming until it was too late and you were throwing your DS out the nearest window (or a nice hard wall).

But thankfully since I knew my DS was going to be shotty and I took precautions I was able to create saves in the tower. Although it kinda backfired a bit because I burned all three save slots in the evil area where I couldn't get out of the tower so I had basically trapped my own ass inside. But it all worked out for the best.

Unfortunately my friend Sara will have to do it the hard way. But I gave her as much of a heads up as I could about the horrors she would have to face. I'm sure she will be done in no time.

I guess I went on longer then I expected. Oh well I guess I was more awake then I thought.

K Out

#59 - Run a Marathon (or possibly die trying)

So I've started training for my Marathon run. I never really stated which marathon I wanted to in but I think in the back of my mind I was planning to do the LA marathon. 26.2 miles, when ever I think about it the distance just seems insane. So most of the time I just focus on one run at a time.

Now when I say I'm in training I mean I bought new running shoes, a few pieces of running gear, and one morning run at 6am this morning where I completely destroyed myself.

I somehow managed to wake up at 6am but apparently I had forgotten to take something into account. Apparently at this time of the year the sun doesn't rise until around 6:40 so when I got up it was pretty much pitch black outside. It was not all I imagined my morning run to be. I expected to be running while the Sun was rising like I had seen in those running commercials. So that was pretty much a bad sign and it didn't get much better.

The run itself started out OK. Maybe because I was all pumped and ready to ran and also at that moment when I was walking out the door a really fast song started playing on my iPod. So at first I was really looking good and that lasted until halfway through my run. Then things started to go badly. My chest and legs started hurting and I still had to get back to where I began. Now at this point I would later learn I should have slowed down and started walking or just stopped for a minute. But I felt that I had to prove to someone (myself) that I could keep going no matter how much it hurt. Bad Idea. Well I did the entire trip with one run and when I got home I was pretty much destroyed.

My chest was hurting, my legs felt like they were still moving even when I stopped and I was pretty dizzy. Pretty much all around a bad time. When I got to work it wasn't to bad. My chest was still hurting but that had actually been a problem for awhile before my self inflicted pain. And interestingly my legs felt pretty good. However, when I got home the pain in my legs finally caught up with me. Since then my legs have felt pretty stiff.

Tomorrow I'm going to rest up which is actually something I read that was good for training. So that means I'm probably going to try to get a morning "run" on Wednesday. This Wednesday I will attempt to go about my training a whole lot smarter.

Also something else I read was that a good way to stay motivated is to have a running partner but I can't imagine anyone that would want to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to run with me. But if anyone feels so incline to also run a marathon or even just get fitter it would be awesome to have someone to run with. I guess it doesn't have to be 6:30 in the morning but thats pretty much the only time I'm always sure to have the time to run what with work.