Zorua

Ah, nooooo! Ten days after expiration... Why do I have to be lazy... Whatever. E3 reactions. ...I...didn't actually see the E3 presentations for anything other than Nintendo, but everyone's saying Microsoft and Sony lost badly to Nintendo. It went something like this: Microsoft: "Here's a better Xbox and some exclusives." Fans: *nods of being impressed* Sony: "Here's some good games that won't come out until next year." Fans: *nods of being impressed* Nintendo: "4" Fans: *standing ovation* So! What did those Japanese maniacs shell out this time? Xenoblade Chronicles 2 looks pretty neat. New Kirby game! Brings back the power-up combination mechanic from Kirby 64. Niiiiiiiiice! Also, four-player co-op is back. Pokken Tournament DX not enough? Well, they're making a core Pokemon game for the Switch! That's right; Pokemon gets a core game on a console! That enough for ya? One number: 4. Metroid Prime 4, to be specific. Hear that? That's the sound of Nintendo winning E3. With nothing but a logo. New Yoshi game! Arts and crafts this time. Cardboard and papercraft. Hidden secrets behind things in the background. Looks nice. Who's going to be in Fire Emblem Warriors? How about Marth from the original Fire Emblem, Chrom from FE: Awakening, and Corrin, Ryoma, and Xander from FE: Fates, on top of the new protagonists! Hyped yet? What does the Switch version of Skyrim have? Zelda gear. Master Sword, Hylian Shield, and Champion's Tunic confirmed. Fighting Alduin with the Master Sword? Awesome! We already knew much about the DLC packs. The new dungeon, Hard Mode, new armors, new pathfinding for the map, new enemy difficulty tier (dear Din, there are Gold Lynels now)... But here's something we didn't know: amiibo for the four Champions! Neat! They had some tournaments at E3 for Splatoon 2 and for ARMS. Great way to hype 'em up. Ever read that fanfiction where the Rabbids invade the Mario universe and team up with Mario and Mario gets a laser gun? Wait, that's not a fanfiction? It's a real thing? DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Wanna play Rocket League on the Switch but are worried there won't be enough players? Fear not! Cross-Platform Play! Use your Switch to play rocket-car-soccer against someone on their Xbox! If Nintendo didn't win E3 with Metroid Prime 4, they sure as heck won with Super Mario Odyssey and it's showstopping jazz number! Hats off to you, Nintendo, for being awesome. And that's not even getting into stuff they didn't show in the showcase, like the Metroid II remake, the Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga port, and a new game called Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido, plus the other new games they already revealed prior like Ever Oasis, Hey! Pikmin, and Miitopia.

Well, we lost the old one of these. Might as well put it back up.

Prophetic much?

Did you know that The Rock could sing? No? Well then, you're welcome. (enable captions for lyrics)

Downloading some famous movie themes by John Williams and some famous movie themes not by John Williams. Then I noticed this was in my recommendations again, so I decided to listen to it again. It's two tracks from the end of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, titled "Your Father Would Be Proud" and "Hope", cut together. I can't not tear up listening to this. Also, looking around, I found this. You ever hear that one song on TV but can't remember the name? Here's part 1. Hope it helps.

I don't remember ever having grape soda. Either I've never had it, or I just plain don't remember when I did. Tastes alright.

Everything's fine. The house survived a lot better than it did in last year's storm (only because the flooding got bad enough to leak into the one room that was lower than the rest; it didn't flood nearly that badly this time, and we sandbagged spot anyway). We once again confirmed the leaky spots in the attic, but that's a problem for the slumlo- er, landlord, and the realtors. Heh. I should probably update that tag, shouldn't I? It's just plain inaccurate. Rations taste horrible; why didn't I ask for emergency donuts?

Northwest.

Heyyy! First time seeing blue sky all week! Almost forgot what it looked like.

Five day forecast: "Harvey". Seriously, the storm put it in park along the coast, so we're getting rain and clouds for the foreseeable future, and maybe strong winds depending on whether or not the eye gets closer or a tornado picks up. We'll see.

So, a couple Fridays ago: after being lazy for like twelve years, I finally got it in gear and took my test to get my learner's permit. I can now legally drive a car with a licensed driver in the passenger seat. After some practice driving on actual roads with actual traffic, I would eventually (haven't done it yet, but eventually) go and take the actual driving test to get the full driver's license. Except the Department of Public Safety just up and mailed me my driver's license. No road test. Didn't even have to go to the DMV. Um... what? How does the DPS know I actually know how to drive, as opposed to just memorizing the driver's handbook? Is this why so many Houston drivers don't know how to signal or to give right-of-way to people who are changing lanes? Because the DPS just up and gives you the license? Is it because I'm 27? I'm old enough and that means I don't actually have to demonstrate proof that I know how to drive? Is that it? We're calling them tomorrow to see what's going on, and until we figure this out, I'm playing it safe and having a licensed driver with me. ...seriously. What?

A couple Fridays ago I took the test to get my learner's permit (after what, twelve years since I was eligible?), and I passed, and I was legally able to drive so long as I had a licensed driver in the passenger seat. Driving on the nearest highway (actually a farm-to-market road, but it's wide enough to be considered a highway in my mind) is still nerve-wracking.

Down here in Houston we didn't get the total eclipse, but I did (hastily) make a pinhole projector and get a glimpse at it when it was near its peak.

So I'm at an outlet mall. One of the stores is a little snack shop that sells stuff like soda and giant pretzels. They sell pizza pretzels. As in, it's made of pizza crust and has pepperoni slices. Yum.

The DMV.

And just when you think things aren't urgent, waBam! Stiff sore lump on the right testic[wait, is that word on the censor list?]. I smell another medical bill in my near future.

So me and Mom finally got new box springs for our beds. Free under warranty. And mine breaks less than twelve hours later. All I did was sit down! This is standard use of beds! It should not break during standard use! Maybe Macy's should get their box springs somewhere else. Somewhere that actually uses quality materials and sturdy construction.

Is there any disease that causes red spots all over? No swelling, so it's not an allergy. No itching, so not chicken pox or similar. No nausea. Just spots. My youngest brother got it last week, and the lack of other symptoms had the doctor baffled. Now I got 'em too. Any ideas?

So the other day I did something incredible. I was using the N-Zap '89 in Turf Wars as usual. Between the decent coverage, the Sprinkler, and the Inkstrikes, usually I get something like 800 to 1100 points of turf with that weapon kit (not counting the victory bonus). ...1700. I don't know how, but somehow I got 1700 points. And I won, too, so with the victory bonus I came out of there with 2700 points. That's gotta be a record, or close to one. (I mean in ranked you get more points from victory bonuses alone, but for Turf Wars? Inconceivable!) In an unrelated match, I saw my first hacker. It was a minor thing--she got going before the match officially began and otherwise played fair--but still, that's a hack.

So my eyes kinda hurt to look around. Then there's a lump under my skin on the back of my neck at the hairline, and another one in that little divot behind my ear, both on the right side. I did have a headache yesterday. The lumps and eye soreness weren't there at three this morning, but they were when I woke up at about eleven. Anyone know if this combination is hospital-worthy? Should I get it looked at anyway, just in case?

"Diseased Man Snatches Madonna's Purse! More on page A5." I was on an episode of The Ramblin' Rod Show once...

So about a week ago, Nintendo released another Nintendo Direct, focusing on Splatoon 2. Changes to expect are: In character customization, there are a lot more options for eye color, four hairstyles per gender instead of one, and an option for legwear as well. Rollers have a vertical ink fling now, used when jumping. The vertical fling sends ink farther but not as wide spread. Before, if you had a charged Charger and turned into a squid to move or reload, you lost your charge. Now, you keep your charge for a few seconds; however this does leave a glowing indicator on your person, so swimming with a charge isn't very stealthy. The Goo Tuber is a new type of Charger that lets you hold your charge for what looks like three times as long as the Splat Charger. It doesn't look like it'll be in the initial release, but a new weapon class will be added soon, called the Brella. It's an umbrella with some kind of rifle or shotgun type weapon in the handle. Holding the fire button after shooting will open the umbrella, acting as a shield. Continuing to hold the fire button will launch the umbrella, leaving a trail of ink and letting you swim up close while behind cover; however you won't have that shield for a bit. Some returning weapons have new sub weapons. ALL of the special weapons are new. This is gonna change how many weapons are played, big time. It also means no more Inkstrikes for me, so there goes my favorite thirty weapons. The Rainmaker's shot is different. Instead of firing a tornado of ink, it fires what looks like a glorified grenade. Previously, your rank in Ranked Battles was graded for all rank battle types put together. Now, each rank battle type gets its own separate rank grade. There looks like a spot for a fourth rank battle type to be added later. No confirmation, though. The new Salmon Run mode (four-versus-horde) will only be available to play at set times. At least for playing with random people, that is; private battles let you host a Salmon Run game whenever, from what I can tell. New abilities, which give you buffs or nerfs depending on what gear you're wearing. When you Super Jump, there's an icon that indicates where you land. This icon is visible to all players, including the enemy team. Camping the landing icon is a very annoying tactic (unless you're the one using it, natch). Now, there's a new ability that lets you do a quick dodge roll when you land, letting you avoid getting killed by a respawn-camper. In both games, as you battle in multiplayer, your gear gains experience just as you do. Gear has one main ability and up to three sub abilities; three sub abilities is just slightly less potent as one main ability. When your gear levels up, it rolls an empty slot for a sub ability, picking at random. There's a rather literal street urchin character (Spyke in the first game, Murch in the second) that will give your gear more slots for sub abilities if there's room, and will re-roll them if they're all full. In Splatoon 2, however, Murch can also remove a sub ability, and can add one of your choosing if you can afford it. Sub abilities are no longer dependent on winning the Random Number God's favor! In Splatoon 1, by completing enough challenges with the Inkling Squid amiibo, you could play back any song in the game at the arcade, and even play a rhythm game to it. In Splatoon 2, this can be done at any time, without the amiibo. Since the game's in-game hosts, the Squid Sisters, aren't taking the role of stage announcers anymore, we have a new duo taking the stage. Pearl and Marina, the musical duo called Off The Hook, now announce the stages, perform musical numbers, and host Splatfests (glorified popularity contests). Initial reaction greatly prefers Marina over Pearl. Probably because Marina is the first ever Octarian that's not trying to kill you. Speaking of Splatfests, the theme for the first one has been announced. Do you prefer cake, or ice cream? Splatfests are popularity contests, where you pick a side and play Turf Wars to get your side points. The game comes out on the 21st, so when's the Splatfest? The 15th. BEFORE THE GAME COMES OUT! Download the demo on the Nintendo eShop and battle it out to see which is the more popular treat!

Aaaand that's pretty much everything Mr. Verres told Nanase not to tell Tedd under any circumstances ever.

From the commentary... "None of this recolor your outfit nonsense. Let's get forms totally changing to use abilities, darn it!" I swear I've seen that idea somewhere before, but I just can't put my finger on it.

So I decided to restart my Breath of the Wild save file, just for the heck of it. Prioritizing story (going around the map counterclockwise and hitting all the plot points) above exploration (zero Korok Seeds (and thus, default inventory space), for instance, until all the bosses were defeated, not to mention five sections of the map are still blank). Last week, my brother (the middle sibling) decided to play Splatoon with his friend online; you can play with anyone you have on your Friends List, and they'll be in the match with you. Now, as of this writing, our character in Splatoon is Level 45 (level is a product of turf covered in matches, with wins helping level rise faster but not being required), rank A (rank is increased by winning Ranked Battles, and is lowered by losing them; lowest rank is C-, highest is S+). You wanna know who's played enough to get our level and rank that high? Me. Also our younger brother, to a lesser extent. Mid-bro technically owns both the Wii U and Splatoon, but he barely plays it at all. Take a guess as to how well he did. ...he did somewhat decent, I'll admit. Not great, but he did okay. I attribute that to him playing other shooter games like Rainbow Six; he's not bad at shooter games, but he's sorely out of practice for Splatoon and any of its weapon sets. He didn't make use of the subs and specials as much as he could've, for one. His weapon of choice was the Jet Squelcher and the Dual Squelcher. The Jet Squelcher (sub: Splash Wall; special: Inkstrike) is the longest-range Shooter in the game, even outranging two Charger weapons. The drawbacks are a comparatively low firing rate and low turf coverage. The Dual Squelcher (sub: Splat Bomb; special: Echolocator1) isn't too much better. Shorter range yet faster firing rate, but the coverage isn't the best either. It's a big comparison between n00bs and veterans2, it is. It's also a lesson in frustration, what with him shooting the floor to cover turf instead of arcing the shot to get more range and coverage and me having to watch him do so. 1The Echolocator is a special that serves as support. Using it reveals the locations of every member of the enemy team that's alive when it's activated, to every member of your team, for about 9 seconds. Not only does it show their locations on the map, it also gives an icon on their characters that is visible through walls, and gives a visual indicator line between you and them so you can tell where they are even if they're behind you. This is great for long-ranged weapons, attacks that can go around corners / over walls, and offensive specials. Another benefit of the Echolocator is that upon using your special (ANY special), your ink tank is instantly refilled, so just throwing an Echolocator out there when you're low on ink won't hurt you. 2Veterans, not pros. I'm not even close to pro.