There we go!

If this works, then you all are looking at MT version 2.65. Let this be a lesson to you: Always keep a copy of your mt.cfg somewhere. I overwrote mine and damn but there was an actual moment of panic before I rebuilt it properly. They need more documentation on what needs to be in “full path” format (/home/user/username/path) and what needs to be in “web” format (http://www.domainname.com/username/path/). But then that’s just me.

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So yeah, Fatal Frame 2 ate my… free time. It always happens, whenever I’m just about to throw in the survival horror towel, along comes a Fatal Frame. Thereafter everything is A-OK. When I was at my lowest appreciation of the Resident Evil series, there comes the original Fatal Frame. With its unique gameplay, interesting story, and lack of action movie cliches it revitalized my appreciation of the old survival horror. When Silent Hill 3 has me completely disgusted with its flaws, there’s FF2.

A short digression. I disliked SH3’s linearity and obsession with the “revenge” motive. Honestly, even if you killed my dad, I would not assail the horror that is the town of Silent Hill. I doubt there’s anything that could blind me with rage to the point that I would think that I could come out OK after fighting such a Lovecraftian horror. I mean Valtiel would destroy me without a second thought, and most likely without even noticing what he was doing. I thought that Silent Hill 2 resonated so strongly because the hideous creatures and horrible environs weren’t a challenge being forwarded at the main character by some “boss” (Claudia in 3) but were really secondary to the telling of the story. James was a person so lost without his Mary, and so screwed up in general, that Darkside was not really all that different from his normal life. He wasn’t all shaking at the horrors that assailed him, he was more driven onward to resolve the mystery of the letter. Anyway, I liked Silent Hill 2 much more than 3. Three worked too hard for cheap scares and grossout bits. With the exception of the mirror room in the hospital, I was much more freaked out by the events in Two.

Anyway, Fatal Frame. I think I might have found the ultima thule, the highest point, of survival horror. The setting is so pervasive that it truely gets under your skin. I honestly feel like I’ve been to the Himuro mansion, I’ve spent so much time exploring it. And as for All God’s Village, I think I could find my way from Kurosawa house to Osaka house with my eyes closed.

The enemies themselves are triumphs in their own right. They are varied enough that you rarely see one more than three times (can Resident Evil say that?), so they stay fresh and frightening. There’s none of the Silent Hill 3 “Oh look, another dog!” feeling. At the same time, you never know when one might jump out at you. You have to watch everything at once, never sure if even the walls themselves won’t vomit up some aberration of unlife to try and end your little adventure.

Again we also have the Silent Hill 2 feeling in the plot. The feeling that, Yes, you are being hunted with Malice (haha, pun!), but it isn’t directed at you personally. Anything more than it would be directed at any pair of twins that stumbled along near All God’s Village. Miku was hunted by ghosts but her main goal was to find her brother, as is Mio’s. She isn’t searching to “end the evil” or “slay the big bad guy” or anything like that. Its a human drama in an extraordinary circumstance.

That’s the real point. And that’s what makes the FF and the middle (for now) Slient Hill so approachable and interesting. Because the main characters aren’t 18 year old Air Force Special Forces graduates with expertise flying and driving any known vehicle and shooting any known weapon.

But seriously, why did I have to partner up with the gimpy sister? Why couldn’t I have a rough and ready athletic Japanese girl, toughened from years of avoiding sarariman gropes in subways to be at least agile enough to avoid friggin Limbo Man. That bastard basically stands still and then bends over to offer you a Zero Shot.

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We caught Saddam. He was hiding in a hole over in his hometown.

At the risk of sounding very much the stereotypical Southerner, i’ve whooped once or twice.

I hate to sound like a conspiracy nut, but everything i see on the tv is “Well, we did capture him, but all this celebration in the street could get somebody hurt!” You have to wonder sometimes.

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Sneaky
What’s Your Anime Weapon?

You’re weapon is the boot knife from Trigun. Click here to learn more.

It was hardly every used, but I think it’s pretty cool anyway. Anyway, this baby is easily concealed, and would make that kick to the groin all the more uncomfortable.

Kung Fu test was something else i tell ya. I’ll talk about it tomorrow if i can walk in to work. Yeesh.

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My girl and I went to see the four-hour extended version of Fellowship of the Ring and yeah, I have some stuff to say about it. However I’d like to address the Breaking of something other than the Fellowship.

I damn near got into a fight. To be honest, the only thing that stopped me was the fact that Kristi had her hand over my mouth. Yes, the movie was long. That made the efforts made by the porcine couple seated behind us to jabber and snicker throughout the entire movie all the more herculean. They yammered so loudly as to be heard over the confrontation between Gandalf and the Balrog. At which point I turned around to point out that there were other people in the theatre, and that they would appreciate quiet.

That didn’t stop them, however, and an hour later during a quieter bit in the flick I tried again. I thought they might not have been able to hear me, and so I turned around again. This time I told them that “Its fucking called ‘consideration,’ you may want to look it up in a goddammed dictionary. Shut the fuck up.” Kristi thought that I should have tried a nicer way, but the way the idiot looked straight at me and continued to blather on earned him a finger at the end of the movie, and had it not been for the timely intervention of my female half he probably would have taken the oppertunity to “respond” to my “Its great that you feel that the whole world is just like your trailer and that we all want to hear whatever moronig braying comes out of your bloated face.”

Overall I wanted a better word for face. And an attempt to tell him to “Curb his dog” had his wife/sister (or both) started up. I only got to use the “curb” line once, and it was over the phone so I couldn’t see the guy’s face. A tragedy for all, I assure you.

I just can’t stand rudeness, sadly.

The movie itself was incredible. The fact that it was still such a good movie even with all that cut out is a credit to Peter Jackson’s directoral ability (directorial? who knows). With the additional material, however, the rest of the movie shines. This is because it is made of gold. Everything that was missing is there. The singing tradition, the Gifts of Galadriel, the Prologue, more niccing for the ring from Bilbo, more Gollum, more of everything I wanted to see.

No Best Picture or Best Director for this movie MUST be remedied. The woman and I are going to see Two Towers next weekend so look forward to more Tolkien fawning. Hopefully less profanity.

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Which Founding Father Are You?

Frankly i’m guilty as charged. I’m actually concerned about a recent turn towards fatalism, and that’s about as close to actual emotional content that this blog will ever get.

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Did something like triple posted there. Something may be wrong with the install of Win2k on this notebook. Thank god i’m getting rid of it soon.

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