Monday, February 13, 2012

From last time where I left off, I did make some way into disc 1 and seem to be on track to complete this resolution.  This past month, is no different.  I went all old-school gamer boy to get my goal, my resolution, my bane of my gamer existence to be completed.  In fact, I think I went a little too gamer boy on this past month.  It was almost every waking moment that I had that wasn't tied into work and family time I was on my PS3 playing VII.

As far as progress has went, I was certain that I would be finished with the game by June.  But I wanted to saver this moment and by the end of the month I knew that I should ween myself back to take in all that need to be taken in.  So let me just start that I didn't think I would make it to disc 2 so soon.  But before I go any further, let me just start from where I left off.
So onward towards the Nibelhelm's Mako reactor in which what did most people would have expected to happen would be a Cloud freak-out.  But alas, it wasn't so.  Just a bunch of mid level monster bosses and a tad mention about Sephiroth.  But since the game must go on, we climb down on the other end of the great mountains and find ourselves a new plain of field to level up (and man was there some level upping being done, mostly because I was lost.)  Our party finally find their way to Rocket Town.

Why is it called Rocket Town you might ask?!?  Maybe it's because of the huge friggin' piece of 'failure to launch' sticking up like a sore pixelated thumb.  That's my guess.  From here you'll get your next member of our entourage, Cid.  We finally meet up with the Cid of the game, and as far as Cid's go in the Final Fantasy universe, this one is one of my favorites.  He's a formal pilot that got screwed by Shin-Ra when they scrapped the space program for more capitalistic agendas.  And now fat bastard Palmer is trying to steal his plane to chase Sephiroth in some other continent (obviously.)  So you kick his ass, try to take off in the plane but it gets shot down and is only a glorified water ski that can only go in shallow land.  Queue up the Final Fantasy fanfare music we have a new mode of transportation.

So now we go to what is needed to go to which is the Temple of the Ancients which is the other major plot point.  But just before that I realize that I am being tailed by some annoying teenage ninja (as if any other character in the Final Fantasy series isn't normally annoying.)  I beat her, she joins my team, and we are introduced to Yuffie.  And because I know what's gonna happen if I continue to go to the Temple, I decide to go to her homeplace, Wutai.  I get there, because why the hell not, let's continue with other people's storylines.  Big surprise, it bites me in the ass and the little bitch stole all my materia.  And to make it worse, she gets herself kidnapped with my materia by the Turks.  I'm almost like, kill the kid, but I want my materia.  Thankfully they're on holiday and don't want to get their hands dirty.  Let her go and my materia's a mess.  I then decided to go back to Nibelhelm to get Vincent but I made a blank at that time.

So I decide to go en route to the Temple, where I then find out the whole damn game up to this point is to obtain some powerful stuff called Black Materia.  Apparently it has the power to destroy the world by unleashing a giant meteor and causing the Ancients to heal the earth and eventually embody someone to make their second coming into the planet.  Which makes me think why would anyone want to rule the world if they're the only one in it; taking the master of their own domain thing too seriously I think.  So to keep things going, the team tries to get to get it before Sephiroth does.  But the Temple requires a sacrifice, so Cait Sith decides to let himself be it.  The team says, let the back stabbing double agent sunnuvabitch take the bullet.  And the team does the biggest mistake ever and let their schizophrenic leader take the materia.  Two seconds later, Sephiroth swoop's in and convinces Cloud to give it to him.  It makes me sick on how stupid this "Hero" is.  Oh, and along the way, Aeris leaves the party to go all Dog the Bounty Hunter and get Sephiroth.

We head north because, well, that's the only untreked placein the game.  We find the place that is called the City of the Ancients.  Man, these Ancients really get around.  This is where we finally catch up with Aeris as she is ready to return to the planet, whether she wants to or not.  Yup, THE BIG KILL SCENE where Sephiroth falls from the sky and impales our heroine as she releases her white materia into the pool.  We then lay her down to rest and end Disc One.

Disc Two starts with us making way further north to some snow resort where there has been a "Man in a Black Coat" sighting and they want to go down and get them in this snow maze.  After getting lost a couple of times, I finally able to find myself to get to the next place in the journey and fight another boss.  That leads me into a crater from the last Meteor attempt years ago.  We find a bunch of Sephiroth's oompa-loompa's making their way to the center and sacrificing themselves to give him, well, as far as I know, a god-complex boner.  No, it's to summon what they call Weapon, it's a beast that the planet created to protect it from harm, no matter what the cost is.  Of course I'm playing the American version of the game and there's three Weapons (more on that in future posts.)  The team makes it to him and then Sephiroth pulls some crazy jedi mind trick and tells Cloud that he's just a failed experiment and wasn't meant to be.  Hojo (the crazy Shin-Ra scientist guy), Scarlett, and the Turks come in and pretty much comfirms that Cloud was a failed experiment.  He finally realize that he's a threat to the team and abandons them to be Sephiroth's bitch in his hibernation status.

Oh, and the team gets captured and is prepped for execution, fan-fuckin'-tastic.  Well, Weapon comes and causes havoc where the team is being held for execution by Shin-Ra and it causes mass confusion and hysteria.  The party escapes and hijack's one of their airships.  And that's just about as far as I gotten in January.

I almost felt bad that I went this far and it's only been a month into it.  But keeping in mind that this game is a real pain in the ass to complete, it was worth getting as far as I did.  We'll see how February pans out and see what comes in next month's update.  Until next time...

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Friday, February 10, 2012

Parenting for this Generation

Well, since it seems that there's another viral video out there, and for the most part I don't usually pay much attention to them. But every now and then there seem to be one that draws such an impact that it has to be noted for how awesome its stance is. And I don't mean awesome in my usual coin of the term as in "Holy crap, WTF, that's so winning..." (even though I think it is, but that's besides the fact.) This draws me in awe in wonderment on yes, sometimes we need to take things to these extremes. 

I'm certain if you have a Facebook account that you've seen your friends posts links such as this on your wall of news-ish stuff and either nod in approval (like me) or throw up in disgust (which I think you're a total pussy for doing such a thing.) This goes for a generation that as we grow older, and more mature that we forget that our environment also grow and spiral out like some crazy weed on a pristine sidewalk. I just wanted to make my stance on the matter and say, BRAVO TOMMY JORDAN, BRAVO!!! 

Most parents I think don't have even enough balls to discipline their children, and I don't approve of that lame-style of parenting. I come from the old school where if you did something wrong, you were punished based on the level of severity it was. Everything from no ice cream from the ice cream truck to getting a switch from the near by tree and get swatted on the backside for my crimes. As you can see, I'm not a bad person for experiencing such nor a bad influence in society (for the most part.) I think in times like these you have to lay down the law for your kids so they don't stray down the path. And Tommy Jordan did such a thing in this viral video. So for this, I solute you and let this be a lesson to kids that don't appreciate the things us as hard working parents who want nothing more form their kids but their love and dedication for what they do to provide for them.

 

I just had to state that while it was still fresh. This isn't going to throw off anything for next week. In fact I'm going to try hard to get a Valentine's Day song in for this month's Lyrical Revolution Resolution and an update from last's month's progress of Final Fantasy VII. Until later in the next week or so (man what a weak ending...) 

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Sunday, February 5, 2012

WTF PEOPLE!?! Super Bowl XLVI

Well, at least this year after watching the Superbowl, I'm not waiting a couple of days before I write it.  But man, I'm almost ashamed to say this since I'm a diehard Eagles fan; but "I bELIeve in ELI..."  That was just one helluva game on both parts.  Quite honestly, I was a little bit worried on whom I should root for.  The Giants are divisional rivals of mine and, well, I can't stand Tom Brady.  And since I rather have championship won from someone within the NFC East versus anyone in the AFC, I went with the Giants.

So let's go over the game itself, since that's what I was mainly focus to watch (we'll get to the commercials in a bit, trust me.)  I was feeling pretty damn good in the beginning with that early safety.  It gave me hope that there were be flaws in the Patriots system.  The touchdown afterwards was just a confidence builder that the Giants could also make plays without relying on opponents mistakes.  My immediate thoughts was "Repeat?!?"  And then shit started to hit the fan.  A Patriot's field goal middle of the second quarter and I thought; "Eh, no big deal."  Then the touchdown in the end of the half; "Fuckin' A, really!?!  So that is how it's gonna be."  I mean New York was supposed to be some big deal about their defense and more importantly their pass rushing and it wasn't there at that time.  No problem, they'll pick it up at the half.  First drive in the half, Patriots did what they do best, score that knock out punch to start.  Now I was friggin' worried.  It was sloppy play going up to the red zone for the Giants and eventually came up with a couple of field goals.  I was still worried for the whole game.  Then the Giant's last drive.

Where the hell do I start.  Well, obviously the Manningham catch to the end zone.  That was just great and also lead to a really bad challenge by New England.  I mean, Stevie Wonder could see that both feet were in bounds and it was a clean catch.  Way to burn a time out and I was thinking, we got a chance at this.  I was hoping for at least a field goal.  Then, from one of the most beautiful plays I've seen in the game to the ugliest touchdown that I've ever seen, just happened.  I mean, I can understand stopping and momentum kept him from staying on the one yard line and going in, but Bradshaw could have just dived, or took a knee even to run out the clock.  I was thrilled but I was also hoping for at least some more time to drop before a score.  So 'Wonder Boy' Tom Brady had :57 left on the clock.  "Crap, really?!?  Well, let's hope for the best," is what was going though my mind.  Then back to back drops and a sack.  "Hell yeah!!!  Pat's are goin' down," then he made the first down.  "Crap!"  But just like things should be, you can't script a better story.  No more advancement from there and the last :05 left in the game my heart dropped.  As the last second ticked off the clock, Brady threw that Hail Mary and you could cut the tension with a spoon.  With nothing but white jerseys covering Hernandez, the blocked catch and the game was over.  A great game that could rival other Super Bowl's and even what I still cling to of being the greatest game of my generation with the Eagles's 4th. and 26.  But that's the game that was, and I couldn't have been happier with the results of how the game was played, none the less, the outcome.

But what's a Super Bowl without commercials?  And this year had some good ones, not great ones, just good ones.  The favorites (or at least memorable ones) in my opinion were the GoDaddy commercials, just as provocative as usual.  Another reliable source of good commercials were Budweiser's prohibition commercial.  It made me want a beer, but I was having a margarita at the time, and I'm a responsible drunk where I don't mix liquor and beer.  Hyundai's Rocky montage was pretty memorable being that I support anything Philly and what's more of an underdog story from an underdog town than Rocky Balboa.  As far as any others, they were either stupid or easily forgetful in my book.  Of course I was more focused on the game itself this year versus the commercials because, I wanted to see a repeat (as noted from my beginning of this post.)  And there was a matter of the half time show.  Quite honestly I didn't see much of it.  My kids were playing outside and I went to blow off some steam on how badly the first half ended and spend some time with them.  I did make it in to see a little of Madonna's performance with Cee Lo Green, and quite frankly, I was more interested in Cee Lo.  The whole performance was crap in my opinion, and I'm glad I didn't get a chance to see the whole damn thing.

Well, that just about sums it all up here.  One helluva game, and that's what the spirit of what the Super Bowl is supposed to be about.  A great game against two giants, and in the end, the Giants were on top.  Kudos to them, good try for New England, and on to see what it will be for next year..

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Monday, January 30, 2012

2012's Lyrical Resolution Revolution: January Edition


I figure if I'm going to do this, I can't fail on the first month, right?!?  So here's what I have in store for January.  I wanted this song to reflect my re-institutionalization to song writing and I felt that this brings it out just right.   It reflects on what I learned and loved in the past about how things were and hope for how things are to come.  I pretty much feel that it shows not only maturity from my usual standard in writing, but also on how I grew as a person in my life.
So here's to the first song of the new year.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present for your written-verse pleasure: Seasons.
There was once a time in our lives, when we thought we were invincible // And there were times within our lives, when we wished we were invisible // And there were those times in our lives, which we thought were incredible // And there will be times that we’ll be tried, to either stop or to let it go
They’ll be a season where we’ll have to be tested // Will we make it today, or we doomed to yesterday // From the sins of our fathers to what fortune tellers call // To either live for the moment or experience old
This season – we’ll make the best of our time // Last season – we reminisce of our crimes // The reason – that we continue together // Next season – we’ll live like its forever // This season – // No reason –
There are times within our lives, where we go through a crucible // And there are times within our lives, where we go through such a spectacle // And there are times within our lives, to tame the bull or grab hold // So many times that we’ve been tried, to either step up or to let it go
They’ll be a season where we’ll have to be tested // Will we make it today, or we doomed to yesterday // From the sins of our fathers to what fortune tellers call // To either live for the moment or experience old //
This season – we’ll shine the light on our times // Last season – remember a sobering sign // No reason – we can’t continue together // Next season – will be better than ever // The reason – // This season – // Live in rhyme – // And reason –
There’s no rhyme – // And no reason – //  There’s just time – // And passing seasons –
This season – we’ll make the best of our time // Last season – we reminisce of our crimes // The reason – that we continue together // Next season – we’ll live like its forever // This season – we’ll shine the light on our times // Last season – remember a sobering sign // No reason – we can’t continue together // Next season – will be better than ever // This season – // No reason -

I sure hoped that you enjoyed this being the first of many songs to come from me this year.  Here's to living up to a resolution, being productive, and doing some good with my talents.

BootLeG sampler.. signing off...