Katsurugi

Boun natale for you, italian OCR-ers.

I'm fine with Xel. But what about this Bahamut character? Who is he to moderate the forums? Sum noob?

Don't worry. You will be!!! (Hopefully... )

Just to finalize some stuff, I think that I'm bringing my friend and perhaps another one too. He said he's up for coming, but he usually sleeps in. Considering how early I have to leave from my place to get there at noon, he might not be coming. I am bringing one definite person and will not be able to sleep over zircon's. See you guys then!

I have made this walk many a time before. It is long and treacherous, besdies the Mogu Mogu on Elizabeth St. is gone. The walk is no longer fun any more. They sold pillows, giant, colorful pillows. It was awesome I tell you. Awesome. I'm simply saying it could be a time constraint because I don't know what people's plans are after eating or when they would like to go back home or something like that. I'm cool with it. It's near school and if anyone is still hungry, we can get an order of takoyaki. =0 Delicious takoyaki.

I say we play it by ear. It'd be nice if we could stop by Multimedia 1.0 or whatever it's called now or Kim's Video. It's more of time constraint if anything. Or a group decision. Some people need to leave earlier than others is my guess and some don't like showing up at some random store they don't know about. In any case, it'd be good to find out the store's hours on that day as well, hopefully it's the same as any other Thursday. It's okay if only 10 people can fit in there. The others can be outside doing improv rap. So we can decide after or before dinner or something. But I also worry about all of our stuff. Maybe the people at Nintendo World will be kind enough to store it for us? This will be the case for any place we go to really. Any storage service usually requires a lot more money since it's on a monthly type basis. If we can be as so charming as to persuade a good hotel to store our luggage for us, I think that's our best bet. But no guarantees. =(

And we will pretend we are not there by staying silent. Anyway, I just finished finals and am free. This is one of the things I'm looking foward to doing. I found a picture as my sig right now... but I think I can do better than that. As Simon and Garfunkel once said, "where are all the people?"

I really question the direction they're taking the Mana series. Of course, a lot of people have doubts even after Legend of Mana. But I know some people who did like Legend of Mana a lot whereas some did not like it at all. It's a love it or hate it type of game, in my opinion. But now, after releasing another Mana game and having plans for another one, I really don't know. Children of Mana is a more dungeon crawler. But it definitely wants you to take advantage of the multiplayer aspect. I feel that this is somewhat too far off from what the original series first started as, in the sense that multiplayer was optional (but loads of fun) and it was your more conventional real-time RPG. News of the next Mana game has me worried. If executed correctly, then it'd be a good thing. However, I don't want a half-baked game trying to do too much at one time. But wasn't there a Seiken Densetsu 4 coming out for PS2 (if it didn't already come out)? Out of all of the Mana games, I think I'd like to play that one. It seems as if Square-Enix is teasing DS owners...

That is true. I really didn't consider that. Usually the busy days are Fridays and Saturdays of course. Sundays are also busy, not not quite as busy as the other two. Generally, the influx of people on Sunday is more my speed since there's a nice flow of people coming and going and you don't have to wait too long to play a game. Thursdays though, it should be more or less dead. But then again, it would be vacation for a lot of students, so they could be around. As for the address of Nintendo World, I believe it is on 48th St between 6th and 5th Ave., approximately 1.5 blocks south of the Christmas Tree. It's actually on the corner of Rockefeller Plaza. I don't know if that helps you any, Jose, since you're probably not going to go again before the meet up. Hopefully, now, people will have a better idea of where to go and what to look for when we go to Nintendo World. Whatever reason people have for not woohoo-ing. I'll just assume it's because of finals, preparing for the holidays, preparing for MAGfest, or because deep down inside pixie hates me. ;_;

Isn't it a pain to skate at the ice rink there? As far as I know, I think you have to purchase tickets ahead of time and then you are designated a particular time slot in which you can skate. It's all because of the popularity of it. Well... I just want to avoid anything that might be a bother or become a hassle because... I'm lazy. I still think that we have plenty of stuff to do without the ice skating and perhaps even Chinatown Fair... though it would be nice to play video games all together. That and well, I'm not too great at remixing/performing music or shooting the breeze either. I just like playing games and wasting life. Anyway, I guess if people aren't really posting in here it means one of two things. Either everyone has said whatever needs to be said or they haven't seen it yet (which is highly unlikely since it's been on the first page for a long while).

I have mixed feelings towards Facebook. Though yes, it gives me another medium to contact other people that I may not know so well as to call them, it's kind of flakey. There are people who really attempt to get as many 'friends' as possible and in a way show off how many other people they know. A lot of these communication tools already exist. When someone writes on your wall or something, you essentially get an e-mail from Facebook notifying that something has been written there. Then you have to go to the site and log in and then read it. It really is no trouble, however, it could have been easier if the original person just sent you an e-mail in the first place. As for groups, there are other sites that provide this as well such as Yahoo or Google even. But I feel that when you do register for something like Facebook, it's more of an agreement that "yes, I am willing to be contacted in this fashion." Therefore, it's a bit less awkward for me to send another person an e-mail and have him or her wonder where I got the e-mail address and why I'm sending anything to him or her. OCRemix Facebook group: http://cooper.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2210239078 Just to note, I probably am one of those people that checks e-mail, Facebook, online forums multiple times a day. It's not that I'm obsessed with prying into people's lives. But it gives me something to do and in truth, I've been going to a new school where I haven't really made any friends and talking to someone familiar is far easier than making introductions and going through all the formal pleasantries. So in essence, I'm just socially starved.

Why? I don't think that having a lot of people will necessarily increase the overall price... This might be a problem when going out to eat and stuff and maybe some other activities. If we have a potential 20 people, we should probably reserve at least a table or two for dinner, right? Manhattan's Little Italy is great. But in any case where you have a lot of people going out to eat, a little forewarning helps both the restaurant to prepare as well as cutting down on wait time. I also worry about how we're all getting into Chinatown Fair. I mean, definitely more than 20 people have been in there before. But not all at once. I always thought we were going to have a group of 10 or so. About old school machines, I think that Jose is right. There are some older games there, but still not really enough. I will have to say that almost 95% of them are fighting games, if not a rhythm/beat game. The rest are old school games or even puzzle games like Puzzle Fighter. Gigawing, Aerofighters, and Bust-a-Move type game are worth mentioning outside of Ms. Pacman and Arkanoid. There are older games, but just older fighting games. Street Fighter 3:Double Impact, Marvel Super Heroes, and Street Fighter Alpha 3 are there too. If this isn't your taste in games, well, it just seems like it's just too bad for you. By this time, I think we should try to cut down on the maybe attending people and determine definites or not. I will probably give an update on my friend's status by Wednesday. If we do have 20 people, then maybe it would be better if we went to museum or something like that where larger groups are more welcome... that's just what I think though. *need a sig*

All right. I just finished Phoenix Wright yesterday. Wow. That last case was long. It took me probably a good week or so to get through it. And I was playing it quite consistently too. The other ones were considerably shorter. That's some good gaming right there. I was thinking about pre-ordering the second one. Finger pointing stylus is a nice treat too. I guess most people here are enjoying PoR? I think I was going to buy DoS first, but I have no idea how the plot goes. Should I really care? I think it's important, but gameplay is also important too. Any suggestions for a beginner type Castlevania game? I played a little DoS before, so I know how it plays... seemed pretty fun.

( <- you forgot this) It's great to hear you're alive and well, Ailsean.... actually.. more alive than well. I have no idea if you're well, but it seems as if you're healthy enough to type on a keyboard. I expect more, awesome, things from you from now on.

Sorry to hear about that, Jose. I know how those naps can be like. Sometimes it doesn't even feel good to wake up. Anyway, I just thought you forgot about the restaurant business. I just kind of thought about it recently. Also, I realized that we'd have to pay the big gratuity percent thingy. As for my personal details, I will update you hopefully later this week!

I agree. I think that what really makes a game for me is the writing and how it is presented, not necessarily the quality of the graphics. Usually, I remember the epicness or just the feelings a game can invoke especially when there are surprising plot twists. No, nothing new about Phantom Hourglass other than it gets released in March 2007. I have plenty of games to keep me busy until then. I have Zelda:LttP and FFV to start and in the middle of Tales of Phantasia right now. I <3 DS because I get to play GBA games. I think I'm on the heels of beating Phoenix Wright though. It's such a fun game, I want to pre-order PW2 just so I can get the free stylus that comes with it. But I think I've been getting more games than I can play right now... maybe I should wait a while before I buy some more games.

Seems like way too much stuff for me to bring... just bringing a bag to hold... things. On another note, my friend said he might be around on the 28th, so there possibly is a place where we could put our stuff, but nothing definite. It would probably also require at least one more subway ride to drop off and pick up later. In addition, I have another friend who might be interested in going. Why don't the other people who are going post more? It's coming up soon... there should be more "woohoo-ing" and whatnot. Oh yeah, what about food, Jose? You promised an update on food... (Food is important.)

This is one of my favorite remixes from Secret of Mana. I find that didn't already post a fan review of the song already. The intro is executed well and goes into a catchy tune. The play between a number of instruments especially with a piano highlight every once in a while is handled very well. I will have to agree that there is some repetition in the remix but only gets mildly annoying when listening to it a number of times consecutively.

It depends on what you want out of your sound files. If you're a purist or one of those hardcore audiophiles, then go for some lossless format like .wav or .ogg. I would rate .ape as one step down from lossless, but still very good at compression and quality. However, I feel that .ape takes up more space than I would like (since I have a relatively small HD). .mp3's are great because of the many degrees they can be encoded in. I used to encode my CDs in 320 cbr, but then realized the wonders of vbr which optimized quality and reduced file size at the same time. Sure it's not lossless, but I don't have a high end audio system to support lossless anyway. For now, I would suggest sticking with .mp3s or at least keeping the files you have in .mp3 as mp3's. Converting will really get you nowhere. You'd have to go to the source and re-encode them in order to get the best quality out of it. It just makes sense that way. I really need a sig... it seems to bare at the end of my posts.

But also don't forget that you may not need to bring so much of your stuff there. Even though three people on the trip do own a Wii, it's not likely that we'd use them all at the same time on multiple TVs, if available. Besides, I think the controller count is around 4 anyway, I think that we'll only need to have one or maybe two around. (One for multiplayer games and maybe one dedicated to Zelda.) So, Bahamut, Athair, and Pi_R_[]ed, you need to work it out. Yes. The issue of having some place to put down our stuff has been brought up. I'd like to think that school would let me, but they have a very strict policy about being closed over break. I could ask around, but then I'd probably have to obtain a key inbetween then... unless my friend doesn't mind storing 7 people's stuff for a couple of hours and is also free that day. We shall see! As for the your remix idea, if everyone is finished with their jamming or whatever, we can work on it over at Sam Ash, Manny's or wherever we're at. If it's Pokemon, I'd like to suggest an electronic intepretation of Route 1. That'd be hot, but probably not thoroughly thought through on my part. For acapella, we need to get started on this right away! Maybe it's already too late, but we could always sight read a bit as long as someone has a pitch pipe. (I have a kazoo!) If we really would like to do something though, we'd probably have to be fairly well rehearsed (at least know what your own part sounds like). For a list, we'd probably need to get first another list of music we have the sheet music to or soundfile with defined parts (SATB, not required, because well.. we are lacking in the female department and my falsetto leaves more to be desired.) I wanted to say I knew some video game music harmony off hand, but I'd be lying. I know nothing.

It approaches! (as do finals... ) I don't think we actually have a good handle on the overnight plans yet. To me, it sounds like zircon will definitely have over 6 other people. As for anyone else who has already confirmed going, they haven't really said anything about staying over or not. (It's only polite to let zircon know ahead of time.) Crashing at zircon's: zircon pixietricks GeoffreyTaucer Bahamut(and friend(s)?) Pi_R_[]ed(and friend?) bustatunez Jose(?) Not too sure about Jose, but he did mention that he was bringing luggage or at least a dufflebag, so to me, this implies intention. Maybe zircon should mention what activities are in store to help people decide... or maybe people just haven't been checking this topic as often as they should be... Other than Bahamut's Wii and DS lites, I don't know what else there is to do. I guess we could like.. talk and bond and stuff. Then again, there might not be too much time to play around unless we stay up all night... but sleep is important! Too many variables... needs more equations...

Is it McVaffe?!

I gots a DS. Currently I only have Phoenix Wright which I'm borrowing from a friend and Brain Age. I don't think I have any other multiplayer games though either for GBA or DS. But if anything, you should bring your DS to the meet up since we're going to Nintendo World. You can try demos via wi-fi. In related news, I bought some Hori screen protectors and a case for my DS from there. Portable gaming is going to be a reality instead of me playing it in my room all the time. I can now probably bring it to school and play it when I'm by myself or bored. Virgin is big. I like it there, but I could never really get myself to buy stuff. I don't know why though, maybe it's because I'm stingy or indecisive... most likely the latter. I bought a tiny cd case from there... always wanted to buy Mozart's Requiem but there are so many versions. I don't know which one to get. As for acapella, I would also need sheet music or an mp3 or something like that to listen to and study a bit.

Anywhere that has like instruments would be nice to perform as long as it doesn't really get in the way of the customers buying stuff. I remember the last time I performed almost an entire score from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with a friend. We were in a Sam's Club. Good times... I don't know about Grand Central Station though. I think there's a reason why normal street musicians don't play there, maybe a security thing... Also there's a whole street musician code and everything. They usually trade places so as to keep the pedestrians happy that are on routine schedules and not to step on each other's turf so music doesn't collide. Or we could not do acapella and have everyone do impromptu rap. I was in an improv rap type thing about the multiples of 5... it rocked beyond belief. I'd tell you the words, but it was so awesome I forgot them.

Don't worry. It will be well documented for posterity. (But you don't get any free DS games. ) I guess we could do a capella stuff. I haven't sight read in a while... In Super Mario Sunshine, the puzzle stages (without the water pump ones) is a good song to do a capella but haven't found it transcribed anywhere... and I don't want to do it myself since I don't have access to properly tuned instruments. It would probably take me several years anway...