Sarah-Sensei's Ramblings

A little background: My 18-month-old daughter's favorite "word" right now is "uh-oh." She says it anytime something unexpected happens (such as a streaming video suddenly pausing to buffer) or when she drops something.


This past weekend we were visiting my brother in Atlanta. We had grown tired of watching back-to-back episodes of "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" (my daughter's favorite show). So, we decided to browse Amazon Prime for a free family movie. We chose "The NeverEnding Story."


She largely ignored the film until we got to the scene where Artax and Atreyu were in the Swamps of Sadness. Once Artax started sinking, suddenly she was completely invested in what was going on! As the music got more intense and Atreyu began to plead with his horse, she got the most serious look on her little face. She kept looking back at us like, "Why aren't you doing anything to help them?!" Then she began hitting the TV with her hand as though she could somehow stop what was happening on screen. I started to worry that I was going to scar the poor kid.


As most of you probably know, when the music reaches it's climax and the scene ends, it fades out and fades back in after the horse drowns. Right after the music stopped and the scene faded back in, she turned around to face us. She then uttered a serious and most appropriate, "Uh-oh." We all started to laugh. It was one of those moments you wish you had caught on film!


Once the "crisis" was over, she soon forgot all about Artax and went straight back to her toys ;)

So... my brother sends me this link to a ::shudders:: Kickstarter page for a game tentatively called "Mighty No.9."

Basically Keiji Inafune is back with another "original" idea. Yes, the once brilliant game creator, who must have dropped acid one day, decided that Japanese game makers should try to be more "Western" and make games like Halo with billion dollar budgets and pretty much sunk Capcom in the last 10 years (because they actually tried to listen to him) before they booted his crazy ass out, has a brand new idea that he wants his fans to fund...

Read the first two bullet points of the project and you're probably going... "Wait... no fucking way... did Seth MacFarlane just possesses you?! Tell me you are NOT trying to make a Mega Man game without Capcom simply by making a Mega Man game with a different name? Tell me you are not this fucking stupid."

I am not a fan of Kickstarter... Mostly because I think it gets used a lot by scammers. I don't mean legitimate uses like buying a set of books for a classroom, or perhaps backing a well known and trusted cause. But I just envision it as a place where tons of people with half-baked ideas set up a page, promising the moon, and give you a lackluster product or the project gets lost in never ending developer hell and the original poster just hopes you forget all about it.

I also see it as a way for some legitimate corporations to milk fans before they will translate a favorite manga or anime, almost like some kind of weird usury system, "If you give me money, maaaaaybe I'll make that product that I probably would have made regardless, but now I have you to put up the money for it so there's no risk for my company to take. In return, I may send you a 'free' exclusive poster for paying us money to make something we know you would have bought anyhow." I just, have a very negative outlook when I see well known companies/people beg for money.

So, I can see fellow Mega Man fans saying, "OMG are you fucking crazy? Don't you want another Mega Man game?! It's Inafune! It's Tomita [Tom Pon]! It's Manami Matsumae! You've seen their names on other Mega Man games a hundred times! Sure it has a funny name, but who cares?! It CAN'T FAIL!"

Yeah ok, I like some of the people on the dev team, and I'll freely admit that I have no love for Capcom these days. But that doesn't make up for the fact that Inafune has done nothing but stick his foot in his mouth and burn bridges with developers for the last 10 YEARS.

Like, remember when he said, "[Japanese game developers] ...know they have to learn more from western games and create games that’ll sell more in the western market. However, they don’t know what to do or how to do it. Even worse, their pride gets in the way, preventing them from learning from overseas developers. As a result, they end up staying in the domestic market rather than going global.”

[Sarcasm]Yeah, so... you're taking your own advice here, right? Because that attitude worked so well for you in the last decade. [/Sarcasm]

Look, I like Japanese games because they are Japanese :p I mean people like hot dogs, but you wouldn't want to eat hot dogs every day, right? Sometimes you want a taco. Japanese games are like tacos in the never ending sea of Halos and Call of Duty sequels... I like them because they are foreign and have a different aesthetic.

Apparently somewhere deep inside, Inafune thinks so too, or he wouldn't be trying to rip off his own characters with a Mega Man poser game. Think Walt Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit vs. Mickey Mouse (only reverse their popularity). Same character slightly different art, similar cog in the machine problem with creative differences causing a creator to strike out on his own. Think about it this way, and Inafune should be a fuckin' hero!

Sure, he may look as though he is giving his fans what they want: A Mega Man game, fully under his control, without Capcom's meddling. Because clearly all of Inafune's problems in life are Capcom's fault.

But with any crowdfunded project, I have lingering doubts about his true intentions. There is a such thing as "Intellectual Property" and corporations are notorious for fine print and trademarks which make it so that a creator essentially hands their creation's ownership over to the corporation. This game, as cool as it could be, is essentially a "Polex" watch. It may look like a Rolex, it may even operate like one, but if you are caught selling them, you're probably getting arrested for bootlegging.

Now, this situation will probably not play out exactly like a guy on the street selling things out of his trench coat in an alley. But there is a very real threat that Capcom will bankrupt the project before it goes anywhere with a massive lawsuit.

All it takes is a single regional branch of Capcom (Japan, USA, Europe... take your pick) to sue the shit out of him for infringing on their intellectual property for "too many similarities" [or as some might say "brand confusion"] to stop this project in its tracks. If he ever signed any kind of papers, at any point in his career, which basically allows the company to possess his characters or the underlying game design, they could very easily argue in court that he violated copyright laws.

This would result in a total PR shitstorm. On one side, you have a company protecting their products, even though they seem hell bent on cancelling every Mega Man project to piss off Inafune. On the other hand, you have a creator fighting for the right to "ownership" of his ideas. It's a great legal case study. However, there's a darker possibility that I can totally see too...

Inafune is pissed as hell at his former employer, and they are equally pissed at him. Although it seems cruel, I have a feeling Inafune knows this game will never be made... and he doesn't give a damn. Now, maybe I'm just cynical, but... imagine for a moment that in the back of Inafune's mind, he's even dimly aware that Capcom may sue the shit out of him. If that is the case, then one can't ignore the disturbing possibility that Inafune doesn't care about making the game so much as getting revenge.

Try this on for size: This could be an evil plot to turn all Capcom fans against Capcom forever... Maybe Inafune doesn't want to make a game at all... it's an elaborate scheme. Because one very likely, perhaps almost inevitable, outcome is Capcom will sue for intellectual copyright infringement. Inafune will take to the internet, as he has done so much in the last 10 years, and he will publicly blame Capcom for "shutting his project down." This will make Capcom look like the assholes, the fans will hate them for it, and then Inafune's revenge for them firing him will be complete.


Perhaps, I'm wrong. Perhaps Inafune's motives are totally pure and he really is some kind of idealist. Maybe he truly believes this will be a great fan project and this Mega Man clone will be beloved by all his fans. It could be that this is some kind of elaborate apology for the last 10 years...

Or, we could all be pawns in his little revenge scheme. Either way, I am not holding my breath. I'm not getting my hopes up. I'm certainly not going to donate. I'm going to pretend this little project doesn't even exist for the time being. There's just too much disappointment attached to Inafune's name for me these days. Just like the next Mega Man game, I'll believe it when I see it, completed.

Again, I post here mostly because I can't say this on FB without her somehow finding out. So, feel free to ignore my whining.

It hasn't been horrible per se, but certainly awkward. The woman was always pretentious, but now she's adding crazy old lady to the mix. I mean, I have noticed changes in my mother in the last few years too. And my mom was always a bit of a lovable nut. But my husband's mother is becoming the kind of old lady who is judgmental and wants you to bend to her every crazy whim. Here are some of the other things she has done since her arrival...

( TLDR )

That's enough whining for now. I pretended to go take a nap so I could write this. :p I suppose I feel particularly bad for my husband. I only hear half of her criticisms because she can't articulate herself as well in English. The poor guy hears EVERYTHING. The other day while she was in the pharmacy buying even more crap, he said to me in the car, "Thank you for saving my life." :\ I can see why his dad got lost in a bottle. It's always about her. I'm kinda glad I only have to put up with her every so many years :p I think her living 2 continents away is a good thing ;p

Today we are 20 weeks along and we found out that we should be having a girl :)




My husband is very happy, he really wanted a daughter ^_^ We have not decided on a name yet. Hopefully, now that we know it is a girl, we will be able to work one out soon :)

Well, I never have interesting dreams, normally. A lot of my dreams are routines or about work (usually about a class behaving badly). Some are the classic "forgot to do my homework" or "somehow forgot to attend class ALL SEMESTER" dreams. But one thing that has been kinda cool about the whole pregnancy thing is I get to have FEAKIN' SWEET dreams that I NEVER get to have when my hormones are not on overdrive!

I've had dreams about my book characters, dreams about people I haven't seen in years (usually with a cool twist like we are all dressed in Victorian garb or something) fun romps with family members...

But the most interesting dreams I have had have actually been about video games that don't exist but SHOULD. The two dreams I had most recently played out a little like introductions to the game, kinda like the sort you would see at E3 or some other announcement event.

The first one I had a few weeks ago. It was a gritty looking title which had the sort of "hardcore" graphics and edgy grime which would probably impress even the most elitist gamer. But instead of being another typical copycat 3D shooter, this game was more of a problem-solving, adventure/action game.

In this game, instead of being some 1980's action hero special forces reject, you played the part of a special investigator/detective who made it his personal mission to seek out and find kidnapped children. And I'm not talking just ordinary kidnapped children, these are kids who are being held by seriously dangerous criminal organizations who keep them locked in abandoned buildings with armed guards and shit. Just to appeal to the "hardcore" gamer the guy has all kinds of crazy gadgets which he can use to help him find/rescue the kids, but think more "Batman" and less "more/bigger guns = better." The main character is more like an ordinary superhero than military, just a regular guy/cop trying to do the right thing.

The game plays more like a combination of old PC adventure games where you examine things, interact with objects and try to solve puzzles. In between are some action sequences where you have more real-time action, which would probably make the game an odd blend of seemingly opposite elements which may not appeal to traditional "hardcore" or "casual" players but would probably be freaking awesome to people like me who are somewhere in the middle. Just to add to the craziness of the gameplay, the introduction of the game involved the title character landing a helicopter on a neighboring building to where the child was being held. Then he had to navigate the condemned structure to find the trapped child in the basement of the adjoining building. It was filled with peeling paint, rusty metal, concrete, all kinds of nifty atmospheric elements. My dream ended somewhere around when he found the kid and was trying to lead him back out before the criminal organization caught them.


The next game was even better XD This one involved a Nintendo E3 announcement. When the presentation began, they said that they wanted to go back to some little known Famicom franchise and revive it in an unusual way. The video they showed began with a montage of famous NES titles which were known for being breakthroughs in graphics such as Battletoads, Bucky O'Hare, Mega Man 6 and things like that... a lot of late NES titles.

Then the screen faded to a title [which I'm pretty sure my mind invented] that Nintendo made back in the late 80s but only released in Japan. It was some kind of space saga/actionRPG/shooter/spacebattle game, with surprisingly nice 8-bit graphics of large destroyer style ships and anime dudes. Kinda like the NES Japanese game "Jesus Kyoufu no Bio Monster"* but with action gameplay more akin to arcade style shooters or the infamous "Zero Wing" on Sega Genesis.

Then the screen faded to black and these words splashed across the screen: "The game was a moderate success. But one thing was missing... YOU!" and then it goes back to an 8-bit nostalgia reworking of the title for the Wii U. But now the main character is in love with "you" (i.e. you are his girlfriend/boyfriend that he always talks about and you serve as his inspiration/motivation). You kinda watch over him in the 3rd person or possibly as someone who is more like a spirit guide in that you are not "actually" present when events unfold but you are aware of them. But the kickass part was, he now responds to things you say/do while the game is in progress using the Wii U Gamepad mic.

So, for example, if something bad happens he would respond to your wailing into the mic. Or if he's about to do something and you want/don't want him to do it,, he will listen for a "yes" or "no" from your end and your spontaneous response would actually alter the course of the game! In other words, the game responds to your emotional responses to it, and your emotional connection changes the course of action! It was SO BAD ASSED!


I told my programmer brother about the two dreams and he thought I should write them down ^_^; He said they sound like the kinds of ideas he wishes he could pursue but he can never figure out how to do it, or how to get the resources together to do something like it (he's usually a team of 1 so that makes life hard ^^; )

Anyhow, I just thought I'd share them :)


*"Jesus Kyoufu no Bio Monster" is a Japan only NES title which was a space adventure game. It's one of those games where you just flip through menus to progress the story, such as choosing to talk to people, give them items etc. I never played it all the way through. This was mostly because when I first saw the thing online years ago, it was in Japanese only and we clicked blindly through the menus until something happened. (Which isn't a good way to play a largely text based adventure/story game). Since then, someone has kindly translated this 80's anime style gem and you can now easily get a patched ROM online. Someday, I may actually play the thing for real XD

( House Stuff )

Now for the "fun" news.

( In-Law Stuff )

The sad part is, with all this new house stuff my poor husband should be feeling accomplished and happy. Instead, he's feeling conflicted. His family is losing everything, and here he is, buying a "new" home. I told him it's not our fault that they lived well beyond their means. And he should not be beating himself up over that. We didn't buy a freakin mansion. We didn't even buy a BIG house. We got one that fit our budget. One that we have a good chance of paying off, a little early even. I got the monthly payment I wanted (less than $900 a month). We moved to a great location (nearest grocery store and Target are less than a 5min drive from here). It's not a mansion, but it's nice enough.

And enough is really all you need.*



*(Note: Unless of course, you are one of my students asking me if your artwork is "good enough," because that suggests that you could have done better but you didn't feel like it. Ask me if it is "good" dammit!!! Leave out the "enough" part!!!)

Well looks like we might be buying a house soon. We have been under contract for a couple weeks now on a 3br/2bth house. Inspection went relatively well, and the list of repairs was honestly not that bad (considering all the terrible things that can go wrong with a home).

It needs some roof work and the seller just got back to us, promising to have a roofer repair the damage. He's not going so far as to replace the entire roof, but the roofer he is using has a good reputation in the area and we will ask for a guarantee on the work he does. We found out that a full replacement will run about $5,000 so in the future if we want to replace it ourselves it won't completely wreck us financially, which is nice to know because a replacement is probably likely going to happen eventually.

I'm glad he didn't nitpick our list of repairs. The things I would consider "major" are largely going to be taken care of. (Such as the flexible line they used under the sink which is probably trapping food in the kitchen -- there were a suspicious number of ants in the sink). So, I am happy to hear this and I think we will be ok.

My husband is always looking for new jobs and he interviewed with a local bank a couple of weeks ago. It was an intense process in which they had him interview twice on the phone and then come in for a 3rd in-person interview. The in-person interview was a series of three interviews with all people involved in the department. So, it was an serious vetting process. They even made him write a proposal! (I helped him with that a little, because he had the ideas but was having trouble finding the words).

He thought he did well and was hopeful -- until he had to do one final phone interview with a gentleman who could not be there the day he went in to talk to the other three people. They asked him to call the guy and talk to him at a specific time/day. So, he confirmed the phone appointment with a secretary the day before and called as scheduled.

The guy flipped out on him when he called and started badgering him on the phone, demanding to know who he was and why the hell he was calling. Apparently NO ONE thought to tell this guy that my husband was supposed to call him! So he had a terrible interview which lasted about 20 minutes with this guy yelling at him and being somewhat hostile and curt. My husband was devastated and blamed himself for "messing up." I assured him that if he lost this job because of THAT, then it was NOT his fault!

So, a couple weeks passed and he thought for sure by this past Monday that he was out of the running. I always hate when he doesn't get a job because he starts going in circles about how he "isn't good enough" or "didn't try hard enough." So, I spent most of Monday soothing his delicate ego and trying to convince him that everything will be fine.

Today we were awakened at 8am when the recruiter called to tell him that she sent him a document via FedEx yesterday and it should be arriving today. Apparently, according to her, the job is as good as his just as soon as they get a clear drug test. (The document in the mail was a form that he had to take to the clinic -- we got it around 9:30am). It was the most bizarre thing because he has not received an acceptance letter yet. Usually, you sign all the paperwork and do the drug test last... So, I don't know why they are doing it in this order, but it seems that there is a very strong possibility that he got this job :)

We, of course, are trying not to get too excited until is is officially announced to him and he is signing papers. But if he does get this job, he will work normal 9-5 hours (or 9:30-5:30), have all bank holidays off and his salary might actually double if we read the salary schedule right O_O; (Which just means he'll be paid fairly ;p because he is NOT paid fairly at his current job). It would be good for us, because with the new house being further away from work than our apartment, he won't be able to come home for dinner anymore and I would only see him on the weekends :\

So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed now that by the end of the week, he can tell that bitch manager of his that he's leaving ;) He REALLY needs to get away from her.

I haven't written much here lately because there isn't much to report.

We are still house hunting. We have seen a few I like, but all are a bit more than I want to pay. The most recent one we saw was quite nice and was built in the 1980's. It seemed to have the original kitchen, old appliances, linoleum on the floor in the kitchen (not my favorite but...), bathrooms were also original, but looked to be in good condition. However, it needs a new roof within the next 3-5 years and possibly a new heating/cooling system.

Even without updates to the kitchen and baths, and knowing they need to fix the heating/cooling and the roof, they STILL want $162,000 which I think is outrageous. That house will need nearly $20,000 in ESSENTIAL repairs ALONE (and no, I do not mean the kitchen or baths). They either need to fix the heating/cooling and the roof or lower that price. Even if those things were taken care of, the lack of updates and all the old stuff probably means they shouldn't be asking for more than $145,000.

I dunno, our realtor is going to try and do some homework on the place, see what the repairs would cost, look at other houses that sold in the area and then give us a ballpark on what they SHOULD be charging. My guess is substantially less. It is owned by an old lady and has been sitting for a while now. Her kids kinda want it sold, so that may all work in our favor...

We'll see, otherwise I kinda liked this one... if only the roof and/or heating system was ok... I mean, I could deal with ONE major issue, but two, is a bit much to swallow right away.

I had a week off for Spring break. I drew a little, played Kid Icarus: Uprising (which is totally sweet, I LOVE the way they went overboard with the voice actors. The characters know they are in a game and totally make fun of it. The banter makes the levels fun to replay -- which is good because you have to grind a lot for items and money).

The difficulty level is on a sliding scale from 0.0 all the way up to 9.9 so it's cool that you can pick how hard the level will be. You have to place bets when you play on higher levels (and on lower levels below 2.0) but even if you die, it doesn't make you start all over if you made it to a midpoint, they just lower the intensity so you can finish. It's a very fair game.

I also recently got lost in Xenoblade Chonicles on the Wii. OMG it is the BEST RPG I have played in AGES. There are SO MANY side quests. I start playing and then all of a sudden 4 hours are gone from my life O_O It is so easy to lose track of time when playing this thing!

The battle system was a bit odd and it took some time to get used to it (it's an active system and it's a bit more intense than the usual menu flipping), but now I got it. What I like is even when you do side quests or just explore you get experience for completing the task or finding a new place. So, even if I'm just running around, I can gain levels.

You can also see all the enemies so you can engage them or just avoid them (some engage you but you can run if you have to). No random battles and invisible enemies. Also, there is no fear in exploration, even if your party gets taken out, you get to KEEP anything you found! You just get sent back to the nearest landmark. So, you can dare to be stupid because there are no penalties. In fact, I only save once every hour or so, because I don't even worry about it. The landscapes are so pretty and the music is awesome!

Anyhow, I have not played a game like that since Twilight Princess. Unless this game all of a sudden becomes a crap factory, I think I would recommend it to ANYONE who has a Wii.

Right before Spring Break I also finished the second novel in my 4-part series. It came in around 110,000 words. I started the 3rd novel, but I'm only about 20,000 words in... it's all Xenoblade's fault.

So, not a lot going on here, really...

Well, I had a night out with my husband on Saturday and we went to see the Columbus Cottonmouths (local minor league hockey) and the Micro Wrestling Federation. It was a double event and the tickets were dirt cheap ($16 each for seat about 3 rows away from the glass), so we had to go!


Columbus Cottonmouth's Website Advertising the Event

It was an amusing night. As usual, the Cottonmouths had several fights (though not as many as they did the last time we saw them). I gotta say they didn't skate as well as the other team and they only managed to pull a win out of their asses during overtime. But it was fun anyhow (and sometimes it's more fun to watch the fans than it is to watch the team ;) )


Well, even if the team isn't as fun to watch as a professional team, you can always hope for a fight.

After the Cottonmouths game they set up for the Micro Wrestling Federation. I was curious about how they were going to deal with the ice, it turns out they just threw some rugs down and put a pre-assembled mini wrestling ring on top.


Set up

Set up took a while and they had some awful Karaoke thing going to fill the time. I hope I never have to endue something like that again. Keep in mind the audience was already rowdy and probably quite drunk from the game. So, it got to the point where everyone who started singing was booed even if they were good :p (most weren't though). Still, I thought it was a bit uncivilized/rude...

Finally, the wrestling began. We got to see 4 matches: two match ups between the 4 wrestlers, one tag-team match, and one match that seemed to be almost a free-for-all. ^^; There really isn't much difference between the MWF and the WWF... it's all fake. The only thing that made this more amusing was the fact that they hammed it up like a slapstick routine. Lots of leaping off the ropes, ramming into one another's crotches, playing with props, and even one took a ride on his partner's back. They looked like they generally had fun with it.


Tag-Team Match (These last two pictures aren't very good because most of the lights were off and we were using my husband's iPhone camera.)

I thought is was amusing that they had a lady referee with long blonde hair ^^

One thing that sucked though was there was this yuppie-redneck [I kid you not, it was just a red-neck in a polo shirt and light green sweater] in the front row who kept yelling stupid things at the performers. He was being a total asswipe. He was very obviously drunk and I think his girlfriend (wife?) caught my evil looks when the guy yelled out dumbshit things like, "Hey, you're short!" and "How'd a midget get fat?!" He also tried to climb over the glass briefly, insisting that he could make it over. I was ready to slug this guy. I think the women he and his loser friend were with, were somewhat embarrassed by him. They should have been.

Of course the whole event was just silly and stupid, but I think all "professional" wrestling is. What I liked was they seemed to have fun with it and it was an amusing extra for the evening.