Light Novels redux

Having being kept away from home yet having decent amounts of free time this week, I've been chipping away at more ranobe.

In the past three days I've finished Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii
Wake ga Nai #2 and started on and finished the first volumes of
Nekuroma and Ranobe-bu.

I don't care much for Hirasaka Yomi's somewhat excessive use of odd
text formatting (bolded text and giant font sizes), which comes off as
feeling kind of cheap, but nevertheless enjoyed both of his books
thoroughly.

Ranobe-bu is pretty similar to Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai in terms
of both themes and format. It's Boku wa (ry that got me to get more
stuff by the author in the first place, so it was probably a matter of
course that I liked Ranobe-bu.

Nekuroma at first glance seemed nothing like the other two, but Hirasaka's writing doesn't change much regardless of the setting, noticeable by the (some might say excessively)
strongly defined (some might say eccentric) characters and the fast tempo of the story. Tempo, not pace; The story in the first volume of Nekuroma is little more than an introduction, and the other two series barely even have real plots.

All of that may sound pretty negative but it's really not; The former makes for truly interesting (in a makes you guffaw kind of way) conversations, while the latter allows for continuous, enjoyable reading.

Anyway, I've already placed an order for the rest of Nekuroma and the
next volume of Ranobe-bu (Amazon is sold out of #3).

Ah well, time to start on Ore no Imouto ga (ry #3.

Oh, and happy new year.

Addition, 3rd January 2010: Also finished Oreimo #3 as well as Miimaa #2 and I'm pretty much out of stuff to read out here. Bah.

Idolmaster DLC

I decided to give myself more motivation to play Ace Combat 6 by getting one of the Idolmaster itasentouki (like itasha only sentouki = fighter plane).
Considered Chihaya, Azusa, Yukiho and Makoto's. Don't really like Chihaya's dance outfit and hate Azusa's visual outfit, though, so I ruled them out leaving Yukiho and Makoto. Eventually decided on Yukiho simply because I like her more. Nice plane, too.

Minimum amount of points you can purchase at a time is 500, though, and the plane was 400 which would leave me with 100. What the hell can you get for 100 points?

Thus I went and bought 2000 points instead.

I've only used half of it so far; The 600 went to the L4U Aidora 765 Pro Meisaku Gekijou and Saint Shirobara Jogakuin. The former was kind of meh and I would've considered it an absolute waste of money if it didn't come with two extend costumes (due to them I simply consider it a slight waste of money), but the latter was immensely awesome. I do believe it's the best Aidora I've seen so far.

Chihaya as Alice and Yukiho as Hoshino was very nice, as were all of the adlib portions.

I still haven't spent all that much on 360 DLC, mostly because there isn't much to buy DLC aside from L4U, and L4U's DLC is hideously expensive (1200 points for a song? Seriously?). Including the stuff I got today, just four Aidora and Kosmos, Cosmos.

On the other hand, I've spent relatively quite a bit on Idolmaster SP. Most of the Aidora, all mail addesses except Ritsuko's, and lots of songs (mostly for Chihaya and Azusa). I have less in the way of costumes, just the swimsuit and Yukata Maid.

By the way, speaking of Ace Combat 6? I played it for a bit after getting that plane.
Few things* can compare to that feeling you get when, after shooting down shit for forty-five minutes and nearing the end of stage, you accidentally crash into the ground and die.

*Getting back attacked and killed before you can even do anything after climbing thirty stories in Tartarus in Persona 3 without saving is pretty damned comparable.


Addition: Just for the hell of it, I made a list of DLC I've bought in SP so far.

My Song (Azusa) - 150 yen
My Song (Chihaya) - 150 yen
My Song (Hibiki) - 150 yen
My Song (Yukiho) - 150 yen
Aidora: Kazoku no Kyuujitsu - 500 yen
Yukata Maid - 1000 yen
Kimi wa Melody (Azusa) - 150 yen
Aidora: Chibi Yukiho no Bouken - 500 yen
Gravure Mizugi - 300 yen
Do-Dai (Azusa) - 150 yen
Anmin(?) Aidora-shuu - 300 yen
Furufuru Future (Azusa) - 150 yen
Furufuru Future (Miki) - 150 yen
Aidora: Azusa no Uranai - 300 yen
Kosmos, Cosmos (Chihaya) - 150 yen
Meisou Mind (Chihaya) - 150 yen
Meisou Mind (Azusa) - 150 yen
Tonari ni... (Chihaya) - 150 yen
Kiramekirari (Azusa) - 150 yen
Futari no Kioku (Azusa) - 150 yen
Me ga Au Toki (Azusa) - 150 yen
Mail address x8 (everyone except Ritsuko) - 800 yen

Total: 6950 yen

...not as much as I thought. That's not excluding the extra I have to fork out when not getting the PSN tickets in person (i.e. getting them online), though.

Also, I haven't gotten any for some time and thus don't have anything from catalogues #9-11. Yet.

This week on IRC

(Nicks are changed to protect identities or whatever)

[15:55] <@Nekama> Have fun
01[15:56] <@Me> ur moms a red cinese comiunitst
[15:56] <@Streaker[work]> But she means well!
01[15:56] <@Me> So did CHAIRMAN MAO
01[15:58] <@Me> EAT PLASMA FIRE, ALIEN SCUM

1[17:03] <@Me> Doesn't sound as awesome as my Fallout 3 experience, though.
01[17:03] <@Me> I enter Megaton.
01[17:03] <@Me> (Silence>
01[17:03] <@Me> OH WAIT EVERYONE IS DEAD.
01[17:03] <@Me> :]
[17:04] <@Streaker> Imagine if you could not only do that but you're wrecking buildings too.
[17:04] <@Streaker> Since pretty much every building in the game is destructible.
01[17:04] <@Me> Are there giant robots?

1[23:35] <@Me> mery clitoris
01[23:35] <@Me> DOG
[23:36] <@21> merry christmas
[23:36] <@21> DOGEATER
01[23:40] <@Me> no u



<@21> 12歳までは守備範囲内。13歳以上は熟女、15歳以上は年増、18歳以上はババァ、20歳以上は化石。反論は認めん。





[15:51] <@Me> That alone makes the game awesome and is enough to determine that anyone who says otherwise sucks cocks and listens to rap music.
[15:53] <@Streaker[AtWork]> Well, I listen to rap music, but not the stuff that gets played widely. Also my rap gets shuffled with J-pop, western rock, R&B, classical, and video game music.
[15:53] <@Me> DO YOU DRESS IN BAGGY CLOTHING AND END EVERY SENTENCE WITH "YO"
[15:53] <@Streaker[AtWork]> I do not
[15:53] <@Streaker[AtWork]> My pants go around my WAIST and I wear BELTS.
[15:53] <@Me> BULLSHIT I BET YOU COULD SUCK A GOLF BALL THROUGH A GARDEN HOSE
[15:54] <@Streaker[AtWork]> but what does that have to do with the price of tea in china
[15:54] <@Me> Everything.

Necron Monolith

I was rummaging through old photo folders when I ran into these, and figured I'd upload them.
A Warhammer 40K Necron Monolith. I've never actually played the game, but one of my friends from my school days did (and as far as I know still does) and used to bring those rulebook things with the background stories and stats and whatever. I flipped through some of them and loved the Necrons' setting (I mean, what's there not to love about Egyptian space necromancer robots?), and when I played Dawn of War: Dark Crusade I fell in love with them again.

And bought the hideously overpriced Monolith kit.

My exposure to model kits is usually limited to just snapping together and panel lining Gunpla, so a totally unpainted, cementing-required kit is pretty rare for me. This was only my second, in fact, after a Muv-Luv Kasumi garage kit that didn't turn out very nice (you can spot it all the way in the back partially hidden behind Sumika in the second photo here).

Thankfully it's not like the monolith requires any fancy painting, what with it being mostly just black with just a bit of stuff on the door.

Anyway, I modified mine to light up when plugged in to a USB power source (I also have a convenient battery-powered USB power source so it doesn't need to be near a computer to light up). Nothing fancy, just cut a hole in the back wall while building it for the cable, and another below the crystal for the light to get through. The end result wasn't as fancy as I'd hoped it would be, though, which I made up for with camera settings and ambient lighting in the above photos.

I don't suppose I'll ever build another Warhammer kit again, so this'll be my first and last. Not too bad a choice, I think.

Cleared Ghostbusters

Cleared Ghostbusters. It was alright, but I don't think I'll be replaying it any time soon. Gameplay was kind of repetitive, and bosses were pretty but not very interesting.Messing around with the slime tethers was tons of fun, though, and what the hell, it's the fucking Ghostbusters. Busting ghosts. That alone makes it worth getting.

Anyway, I have limited hard drive space and 10 GB is kind of a lot, so I've uninstalled it already. Currently downloading Indigo Prophecy and Splinter Cell: Double Agent, both fresh from the Steam sale.