Pirates

Just a few gut reactions, Pirates cleaned up today. I've liked Clement quite a bit, and both wilson and snell needed to go for them. So that was a good trade, and the Sanchez one, just, wow, what the fuck Sabean. I thought you had turned a new leaf man. Garko trade wasn't that bad, minor upgrade, may have overpaid a bit but hey, even I hate watching Ishikawa bat, it just seemed justifiable. But this? Shit, if you're going to trade Alderson why the hell go for Sanchez? If I'm a giants fan I'm getting nervous, the trade-young'ins-for-aging-scrappy-vets sabean is back, and even if the giants rotation is a strength without Alderson at the moment, it only takes one blown elbow to change all of that. I hope the SF front office knows what its doing here, cause I really like that trade for the pirates.

Holliday Deal

Holy shit. That was all I could say after I saw the deal. How? St. Louis must be so desperate, not only did we get Wallace but we got what appear to be two other high minor league talents that should contribute in the big leagues in the near future. I just don't understand, honestly I'd be reluctant to deal Wallace for Holliday straight up at this point, and I'm not even that high on Wallace. Fantastic trade, don't know how it could have been better. Position wise things get interesting. I'm liking this Patterson to center business, prbly means Cardenas slides back to 2nd. Who knows what happens to Jemile Weeks then, though I guess this is all predicated on Wallace playing third right now, it could well be management is sick of Barton. That's all counting chickens before they hatch though, Wallace I hope we see soon. By soon I mean september, and then maybe halfway through next year. Man I hope we sign Grant Green, gonna have enough infield prospects to make another team with.

holy crap

I got two new games today: Eternal Sonata and Shadow of the Colossus. OK so not new in the sense that they were recently released, but new to me. Both I've been wanting to try out for a while actually, the idea of a rpg designed around a classical music composer sounded like a blast, and colossus just looked like a pretty intriguing concept. Suffice to say the only thing I'm finding enjoyable in sonata is the option to listen to Chopin pieces, and Colossus may very well be the best game I've ever played. Hyperbole, maybe, but I've only killed 4 of the suckers and I am just in complete awe of the game. Incredibly simple concept, yet the depth of the game continues to surprise me. Environments are incredible, the controls fit the game perfectly, the character design for the hero (certain clumsiness, yet portrays this odd sense of determination) is probably my favorite part of the game so far, and the colossi themselves are just magnificent. I do not know why I never picked this game up earlier, but hell am I glad I finally did today.

Haunted

So I finally got my eval for syntax. Apparently my work was alright, but what really killed me was my informal writing. damnit. My writing is really informal, I'll admit, very unscientific. Always figured it didn't matter, as long as what I am trying to explain is clear and obvious. I guess the problem with informal writing is the point becomes less obvious, but I normally keep this in mind while working. I dunno, I think I write in the style I do because it keeps me sane. I hate having to read through huge essays that are in that dreary paper voice, if that makes any sense to anyone aside from myself. I like to keep my essays light and informal in tone because it helps me write it, and its way easier for me to go back and proofread it. I guess the downside is smart people don't take me seriously. I think part of the informality was me staying up til 5am every night half asleep trying to write all those damn papers. I do remember some mornings waking up and thinking, "god i did not write that did i?" well, things to work on in the comming term: more formal writing voice, more sensible sleeping hours.

10 run comeback!

Seriously, what the hell happened that game! One of the more insane games I've watched. Holliday finally looked like the guy who was really awesome in Colorado. Everyone in the lineup hit, Barton had some well struck balls, really a fantastic game. Except Gio, holy god was he crap today. That first inning was brutal. Same old Gio story, get in trouble with walks, watch opponent launch homers. And god were they some shots. When we were down those 10 runs I thought it was over for sure, but somehow we kept gettin guys on base. That Holliday slam, was thinking theres no way in hell he hits it out, but then he AND Cust hit homers. I was jumping up an down in the living room shouting, it was really the most exciting thing I've seen this team do. 9th inning almost killed me, heartrate was through the roof when Suzuki lost that pitch in the dirt an then couldnt find it while it rolled to the backstop. Great win, games like that remind you why its still worthwhile to watch, even if the overrall talent on the team is a bit lacking.

Obama's a lefty?

Who knew.

Sanchez

I tuned in during the top of the 7th. First thought, "what the, how'd the giants score so damn much." second thought, "what the, how is sanchez still pitching this deep in the game." third thought, "ah, padres, say no more." not to take anything away from sanchez, it was a thrilling last few innings and the guy pitched incredible, but god the padres are a bad team. I did have quite a bit of fun though. uribe is easy to hate for some reason, and when he got that bad hop and booted the ball around it was nice to be able to blame him. The rowand catch was insane, I thought that ball was gone for sure. and the final strikeout, that was great, was really not expecting anything near the strikezone, I mean come on its sanchez, but he drops what looked like a curveball right on the edge there, brilliant. I like jonathan sanchez, dont know why. i like rooting for him, maybe its cause hes fun to watch because of the insane movement his pitches feature, or maybe because he throws the most blatant spitter ive seen (seriously guys, dude sticks four fingers in his mouth, turns around, and applies said fingers directly to ball. he does this pretty much every pitch, i dont see how no one ever calls him on this, been doin this forever.), or maybe its because in the insane land of san francisco giants baseball hes kinda the underdog with all the talent in the world. well anyway im happy for the guy, was fun the watch, hopefully this marks a corner for him to be turning, hopefully hes traded tomorrow for holliday.

Ah Summer

Met one of my newer cousins today. He's 6 monthes old, his name is Raiden. No joke, I think its sick, kid is Japanese/Indian/white. Also his part of the family is all really smarts and succesful. Also he was born in Hawaii and got to live there for the first 6 monthes of his life, not that he'll remember it, but shit, I am insanely jealous of this kid. I normally don't like babies, but this kid is just so cool. I dunno, I'll be interested in how he grows, just seems like he has everything already. We like doing that to babies/young people though don't we, heap on all kinds of unfair expectations.

Real reason I'm making this post: hollidays depress me for some reason. I always feel crappy on hollidays, no idea why. Maybe its that whole pressure to be happy thing, since its a holliday, so the opposite happens instead. maybe? I dunno. Birthdays are the worst, I always just try and avoid people on my birthday, again, no idea why.

Well whatever. Change of subject. I'm going to set two realistic goals for the rest of this summer: get my licence and change my name. July I'll try my best to get that goddamn licence, hopefully I can straighten out my name in August. I'm thinkin just Mikio Shimozaki. Lame, not particularly fond of my mothers name but it makes sense. Finally get the Mikio in, lose the confusing middle names, lose the father's name.

revisiting FFX-2

I've been playin a lot of games this summer. what else is new, i know, but anyway one such game i decided to replay was FFX-2. ive played FFX a lot, like too many times, so i decided hell, why not replay the sequel.

holy crap man, its pretty bad. like makes me cringe bad. the worst part tho, i cant stop playing it. its really a fantastic system, customizing the grids and changing classes on the fly during battles. the active time battles are done fairly well too, for the time that it was made im really impressed. just, the game is so, well, completely aimed at 13 year old girls or somthing. the dialogue is rough, the story is really rough, you constantly have to change the clothing of these girls, it gets really annoying.

square really lost sight of what their game buying demographic was on that one, problem is, we're all such whores for any FF game they throw out that we buy it anyway, and we love it cause hey, they usually are pretty damn good. im not sure about this game though. this one is really a game for the fans, meant to get you all nostalgic for the 50 odd hours you put into FFX, and it does that to some extent, but the storyline and horridly awkward dialogue really just kill any of that fun nostalgia mood we are wanting here. that said, i am enjoying collecting the different grids/classes and mixing them around to kill shit. notice how i worded that, sounds a ton better than dressing the girls up in a variety of garments and dresses to go on adventures. its basically wat it is, and goddamnit if it isnt fun somehow. if only they had ditched the story, just made it wat it really was meant to be, a revisiting of the FFX world with one of the more memorable FF protagonists (alrite im a huge fan of yuna's character, guessing becuase of the mixed race issues she has), coulda been so much better, or a ton less annoying at least.