Hey, check it out. Another WarioWare copy! But it has been a while since I linked to the last one I found, which is, on that note, still hanging around.
So anyway, I've gotten most of what was on the Comedy-Napalm TE over here now. It's just a matter of the news archives and the CD collection at this point. I'll be posting a new article later this week, as well as another CN article. What else will happen is strictly up to fate. Oh, and I guess a Band of the Month post should appear in there sometime too. What with April ending today and all.
Welcome to the new and very sextastic Torrentialequilibrium.net. I hope you enjoy your stay. Things are a bit disjointed at the moment, but they'll all be up and in their places soon enough. Big things are going to be happening around here pretty soon too, so make sure you come back every now and again.
That said, I have a Brain Age blog review scheduled for today, so let's get to that.
First off, Brain Age is not really a game. It's software intended not to entertain you, but to get your brain moving and in shape. That said, it's still pretty neat to mess around with. The main idea of the game is to take a series of test each day in an effort to work your brain and keep it at it's sharpest. Your progress is track by your brain age, which is tells you how old your brain seems by how well you perform. On my first try, my brin was ranked at 77 years old, which I'm certain is pretty horrible. After a couple days though, I've been able to work it down to a more respectable 32 (20 is the lowest you can get). The tests include the Stroop Test, some basic arithmetic, and other such things.
You can also get that prefrontal cortex motoring with some basic brain training exercises. These excercises include more basic arithmetic, reading out loud, counting syllables, and other stuff. One exercise in particular shows you pattern of numbers (from between one and ten) for about two seconds, and then you have to poke their positions in order of highest to lowest. You get a stamp every day that you complete at least one exercise, and you unlock more exercises by accumulating stamps.
Finally, the game has a huge number of Sudoku puzzles built in, and while I find Sudoku very easy and not at all worth all the attention it's been getting lately, it is fun to try to get really fast times on the various puzzles.
The neat thing about Brain Age is that you play it holding the DS sideways. It seems a bit wierd at first, but ends up being far more comfortable than holding it normally. I think it's an interesting piece of software, and at the bargain price of $25, it's definitely worth checking out.
You know what? I'm not even going to bring it up past this short paragraph. It's not going to happen. It's just a name. It's not worth shitting my pants over.
Now I've got a little dilemma. I seem to have forgotten to tell you about the Silent Hill movie, but I also promised I'd share my opinions on Brain Age today. I don't want to do both, (why waste a good blog post?) so I'll just have to push Brain Age to tomorrow. Again.
Okay, so Silent Hill. I love the games very dearly, and if you keep up with this blog, you knew that. So obviously I was very psyched about this movie. It also filled me with fear and sadness because as a rule, video game-based movies blow. Silent Hill did not blow, despite what Scott and Tycho may be telling you. I'm going to go on record and say that it's the best video game movie ever made. In fact, I loved it. There were so many great things about it that I don't know where to start. I guess the first thing to hit me was that at least half the music in the movie was ripped straight from the first game, or was at least so similar that I can't tell the difference. Next, the camera work was brilliant, and very reminiscent of the game. Lastly, the "crazy world" parts were very well executed, and made me a very happy Ryan. The base of the story remained mostly the same, and there were some huge changes that kind of irked me, but I won't spoil anything like that.
The things I didn't like about it are as follows: 1) I miss Harry Mason. 2) The fact that it was based on the first game, yet featured Pyramid Head (along with his gigantic knife) from SH2 was a little dumb. 3) They totally trivialized the Lisa character. She could have just as well been cut altogether. 4) You know, that's about it.
One last thing that doesn't really need mentioning is something that would have scored huge points with me: if they had used the joke ending from the game. Everybody who hadn't played the game however many times you need to get that ending would be stupified and angry, but I would have loved it. I'm pretty sure anyone else who has earned that ending would agree with me. Here's hoping they use the SH2 joke ending in the likely sequel. All hail the Dog!
Hilarious: DS Lite review
Awesome: GBA/DVD Player
Sexy: Nicole
Brilliant: Real-life Mario Bros.
Tomorrow: Brain Age
It'll still be a couple days before I try to get back into the swing of things, but I figured that in the meantime, I'd distract you with a little blog rambling. To tell the truth though, I've got nothing. Nope, nothing to say. Nothing new anyway. Well, I did find the soundtracks for Baten Kaitos 1 and 2 on eBay about half an hour ago, and it's taking every ounce of willpower in my body (and then some) to keep from blowing my hosting money on them and having to wait another eight days for new hosting funds to transfer over.
They've begun posting weekly videos over at the New Super Mario Bros site. So if you're interested in that, then you might want to click my little link there.
I'm going to see Silent Hill tonight. As a gigantic fan of the games, I'll have a very biased blog review tomorrow, assuming nothing gets in my way.
For the Tetris lover in all of us.
I'm a little surprised at how much people seem to hate the PSP. I'm starting to feel bad for the little guy. Did I really just type that?
Lastly, I feel the need to mention that Planet MegaMan is back up after what seems like forever. It's still slowly recovering piece-by-piece, but it certainly looks spiffy.
Okay, good news. I've found solutions to all my problems. Some less great than others, but at least... you know what? Only one is a good solution, and that's deciding to get my own webhost. Currently, I'm leaning toward Topclasshost, but it'll still be a few days before my cash transfer will be complete, so if anyone spots a better deal in the next 4-5 days, don't be afraid to give me a holler.
The next thing I've decided is about the site's future. I've come to the conclusion that my last blog post was kind of like a mid-life crisis for the site. As such, I've decided that since the site is three-and-a-half years old, I will continue with it until it's at least seven. At that point, it'll be up in the air, but I promise that I will continue to provide half-baked entertainment until December of 2009.
Lastly, since I'm really not digging the night shift as much as I thought I would (read: at all), I've quit my job. It's sad because I like the work, but I really hate the hours. I don't feel so bad though, because my cousins go through jobs like Russians through vodka, and me only quitting one job because I don't like it doesn't seem so bad in comparison. Anyway, I've already come up with a respectable list of places that I know I'd love working at, so we'll see how that turns out.
But enough about that shit. I've got good news! I'll be posting a good many articles soon after I get set up with whereever I'll be hosting my site from, with one being a real movie review. Not one of those lousy quickies. Also a handful of video game reviews, including Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel Without A Pulse, and a review of the Tales of Eternia anime series (Because I'm a Tales whore. Seriously. I'm considering getting a PSP for the ToE port, even though I swore to myself that I'd never buy one of the damn things). All this along with some very overdue articles and the rest of the Comedy-Napalm articles. So while there's been a little slump this month, things are going to get very much better soon. At least for a while. Did anyone suggest the return of weekly articles? I just might consider it...
Argh... One last note: due to inactivity and the whole webhost fiasco, the CN Forums have officially been abandoned. They'll still be around for a couple months or so, but after that, they'll be dead. not like mine, which are still floating around out there somewhere...
There are three reasons I've neglected to post anything over the past week. Firstly, and most dominant of the trio, is that one way or another, I'm going to be moving the site again. Mike has gone and found a new web hosting service, and that means if I'm going to keep blogging on his dollar that I have to move with him. However, I've been seriously considering finding my own web host. I've been looking around for a bit, and I've found one that seems to have all the things I need, so I may very well take my web-fate into my own hands after three and a half years of relying on someone else.
The second reason is that I've had no will to write at all lately. I've been devoting most of my computer time to Coozy for Hire, and I don't feel like working on anything else on the computer. I've got plenty of things I want to write about or at least give plug in the blog, but this whole graveyard shift business is really taking it out of me. Was everyone who told me it was a bad idea right? Yeah, probably. I still love the work, but the hours are really starting to get to me. Not to mention that I have to start half an hour early every day and manage to get clockblocked for at least twenty mintues every weeknight. That's just not cool.
The last thing that's been keeping me astray is thinking about the future. And not just the overall future, but the future of this website. Like what the hell am I going to do with it when I'm done? Will I just let my hosting run out and let it become nothing than a memory? When am I going to decide to call it quits? Am I going to be able to let go or will I kep updating until I die because I don't want to just throw away something I've invested so much time and effort into? Why do I bother doing it all anyway? I get no significant pleasure from writing, and nobody really visits anyway. These thoughts are driving me bonkers, and have helped chop away at my zeal for webmastering. So I don't know what's going to happen next, but likely I'll get a rush of enthusiasm if I get my own webhosting, like I did when I escaped the clutches of Angelfire. Anyway, we'll just see, and you can expect that I'll update you whenever something related to any of these issues happens.
Threw up another Comedy-Napalm article today. And by that, I mean an article that used to be on CN. But you knew that. What? You didn't? Well I guess you're a dumbass then. Anyway, I have to go finish Kingdom Hearts now so I can get started on the second one.
I've just finished uploaing a new article. Kind of... Well, you'll see when you get there.
That aside, I need to mention that I recently acquired the soundtracks to Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos 2. Amazing soundtracks, and I heartliy recommend you download them if you like video game music. Motoi Sakuraba kicks Nobuo Uematsu's ass anyday. ANY. DAY. Mainly, you need to check out the guitar versions of the battle themes. They will melt your face like never before. Also, Baten Kaitos is a pretty sweet game too, you should look into that too. The sequel is supposed to come out this summer sometime, and I'm getting pretty hyped about it. So yeah, that's pretty much what I needed to say. Later.
It's been a while since I announced that I'd be writing a new article, and to be honest, I still haven't done it. On the upside, I did write a totally different one out of the blue. While it's not a boring video game review, it is basically a 1400+ word sales pitch and an excuse to make a really flippin' sweet banner. I did try to work some wit similar to that found at WWTDD into it, so if you enjoy that site, then you should maybe read my crappy article. Or give me money! That's a great idea!
Begging aside, I did a little work to improve the unity of the site, and now the menu bar at the top of (most of) the article pages is all blue rather than red, and the articles page has also turned blue. Red and black is so overdone, and I want my site to look a little original. Also, I want it to look like all the pages belong together, so making the colour scheme "universal" is probably a good way of starting that. I don't know if I should redo the articles entirely in the same colour, or if I should leave them unique from each other. I'd like to hear some opinions about it over on the forums.
This month's BotM is Poison. Look how I got right to the point there!
Yeah, so Poison. Chances are pretty good that you've heard of them. I mean, come on. Who hasn't heard "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" sometime in their life? Hippies, that's who. And you know what I think about hippies. Well, maybe also someone who never attended a junior high dance between now and the eighties. But what are the chances of that?
Anyway, if you know Poison, there are basically two possibilites: you love them or you hate them. I've taken notice over my many years that there exist two breeds of people in the world: those that love 80's music and those who hate 80's music. And generally, when you hate 80's music, you hate the 80's on the whole. But how you could hate the 80's is far beyond me. That decade brought us so much, including hair bands, the NES, and everybody's favourite webmaster. There's a lot more, but those are clearly the most important ones.
But back to Poison for a moment. I very much adore the band, as they take the basic rock n' roll formula and make it their own by adding in plenty of bluesy/country twists and great music. Not to mention that they're just plain fun to listen to. If you need a quick rock-out, pop in some Poison and you're good to go. I know there's a lot more to say, like how lead singer Brett Michaels is a judge on "Nashville Star," but frankly, I really want to go play some video games right now, so I'm going to wrap it up.
This'll probably go on record as the shortest BotM post ever, but that's okay. I got my point across. I like Poison, I think you should listen to Poison. If you don't like them, then that's too damn bad. You're missing out on some good times. So that's the end of that. I'll see you around. Later.
This is easily in the running for the title of Best White Ninja Comic Ever. Some other things that might interest you include the Nintendo 64 kid (who, if not for the sister, totally could have been me) and a Bob Ross game for the Revolution.
But possibly the coolest thing ever, as discoverd on The Sneeze's sidebar, is that tomorrow morning, shortly after 1Am, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. Of course, people who use the DD/MM/YY format (wierdos) will have to wait until next month. Just thought that was neat enough to mention.
While it's not interesting at all from a normal person's perspective, but all the junk coding I cut from this index page brought the filesize down to 27K, which is like half of what it used to be. Adding up all the pages I'll be cleaning up, that would ahve saved me a good hunk of room back on Angelfire. And also, google "torrential equilibrium." It's not much, but I've changed the description a litte...
Last thing for today: I'm such a trendwhore!
I've got a story to tell, but I've already typed it all out once, so I'll just stick it to the man with a link. The Revolution Project (Opera of Innovation). Seriously, it has almost nothing to do with the Nintendo Revolution, so if that would put you off, don't fret about it. In return for this sweet could-be-article, just promise me you'll check out O.A.R., as they're an awesome alternative band, and it would be a shame to just let them slip by. And also Satyagraha, because they're a cool local band co-run by ex-CN writer Doug.
Band of the month... tomorrow? Maybe Wednesday. But soon.
I've completed the main bit of sidebar editing. There's still some unseen stuff to do (unless you can't see CSS formatting for some reason, then it's going to get ugly), which I'll get to a little later. The important changes are simply some moved/removed links. Nothing big. All the other pages featuring the sidebar will be updated in good time. Probably not today though. Just make sure you check out the links under "Friends of TE" as they're almost all pretty cool sites. End transmission.