Kizyr
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So I'm getting a bit nervous about how parking is going to work out this year. Especially because both Thursday (night) and Friday (noon) I'm going to have to step out and go somewhere in the middle of the con.
I'm fine with parking <1 mile away from the hotel and walking there, and at least in DC I've always been adept at finding street parking. But I don't think I'll be as lucky here.
I want to be sure I'm understanding some of the options on the Parking & Directions pages...
- For the overflow lot (at NVCC), they're running a shuttle between there and the hotel. But, NVCC is kind of a sprawl and the parking lots are scattered. Where's the shuttle going to be?
- There're parking garages across the street, though the MAG page says they're 'not working with us'. Does that mean we can't park there at all, or that we can but we just have to pay the regular price for the garage?
- I heard something about some of the shuttles to other places not running. Is the one to Pentagon City still running?
Just making sure I know all my options beforehand... KF
- For the overflow lot (at NVCC), they're running a shuttle between there and the hotel. But, NVCC is kind of a sprawl and the parking lots are scattered. Where's the shuttle going to be?
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Oh hey, as long as we are suggesting restaurants, one of my favorite restaurants in the area is not too far from the Hilton. It's called Busboys and Poets. It's vegetarian/vegan-friendly (and they serve meat as well), and they have a focus on social justice, incl. a small fair trade market/bookstore, for people who are into that sort of thing.
It's in Shirlington which is an area that has a lot of other good restaurants, and might be a good place to do a group meal. Shirlington is right off of 395, at exit 6 I believe.
Oh Shirlington is a great area. You get there from the hotel via I-395N from the hotel to the Shirlington exit (apparently... Google doesn't want to tell me if there's a number to that exit--it's Exit 7 if you're coming from the opposite direction). Anyway...
Address:
4251 S.Campbell Ave, Arlington, VA 22206 (Busboys & Poets)
Directions from Hilton:
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Hey everyone! One suggestion I might make... My favorite Japanese restaurant* in the area is nearby, Kyoto Sushi. It's about two miles down the road on King Street away from the Hilton. If anyone is up for it, we might want to hit the place up for lunch or dinner sometime.
Address:
3676 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302 (Kyoto Sushi)
Directions from the Hilton:
Or basically: (1) go up I-395N to the next exit, (2) take Exit 5 and stay right, (3) Kyoto Sushi is in a little strip mall area to the right a half-mile down the road.
See y'all at MAG. KF
* Meaning that this is the only Japanese restaurant I've found so far here that I'll actually recommend to people.
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So, Sega Saturn was and is my favorite system. I still play it regularly (and have both a Japanese and American one, since that converter cartridge means I can't also use an extra RAM cart for Shining Force III).
Most of what I play is imports (hey that was half of my motivation for learning Japanese), and I'm rather RPG-heavy. Here is what I think is worth playing that I already have:
- Lunar: Silver Star Story [RPG]*
- Lunar: Eternal Blue [RPG]*
- Magical School Lunar [RPG]*
- Shining Force III, Episodes 1-3 [Tactical RPG]*
- Dragon Force [Tactical RPG]
- Dragon Force 2 [Tactical RPG]* (MAYBE - haven't played it yet)
- Panzer Dragoon [shooter]
- Panzer Dragoon 2 [shooter]*
- Nights into Dreams [Action]
- Magic Knight Rayearth [Action RPG]
- Albert Odyssey [RPG] (at least for the music)
- Grandia [RPG]*
- Sakura Wars 1 [Tactical RPG/Menu-RPG]*
- Sakura Wars 2 [Tactical RPG/Menu-RPG]*
- Tokimeki Memorial [Dating Sim]* (YES I play dating sims)
- Snatcher [Menu-RPG]*
- Puyo Puyo 2uu [Puzzle]*
And my 'wish list' would probably add:
- Panzer Dragoon Saga
- Guardian Heroes
- Silhouette Mirage
* = import, at least the version I have
I've always been a major fan of the Lunar series, so those games always go to the top of my list. Lunar: SSS and Lunar: EB are also available on the Playstation in English, and the original versions are on the Sega CD. Magical School Lunar isn't available in English, although I do have a walkthrough/translation guide up at LunarNET and GameFAQs (Google "Magical School Lunar walkthrough").
Shining Force III, Episodes 1-3, is something I picked up from Mad Gear a few years back. It's absolutely the best thing I've played on the Saturn (aside from the Lunar series) and by itself makes the entire system worth it (it's the sole reason I have a Japanese Saturn, since the cartridge made it impossible to carry your save to the next episode).
Dragon Force, Panzer Dragoon, and Nights are the kind of games that came stateside that really made the system worthwhile. Magic Knight Rayearth was great, but it was a real latecomer.
Albert Odyssey... okay RPG, absolutely incredible music.
I still haven't played a few of these, such as Dragon Force 2, Sakura Wars 2, and Grandia, and Panzer Dragon Saga since I don't even have that one.
Also, some games like Snatcher, Tokimeki Memorial, and Puyo Puyo 2, are really only fun if you like the genres that they're in. KF
- Lunar: Silver Star Story [RPG]*
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Hi folks!
Ok, so, good news. Thanks to some help from Brushfire, Dyne, and others, I managed to get a couple of extra badges--one for Jenner, and one for one of my other friends who was likewise desperately searching for a badge (if any of y'all met me back at Magfest 7, he was with me then).
So, crisis averted?
I swear, going without Jenner was gonna feel like going with only one arm and a leg. KF
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IRC is blocked from my workplace, so I'll have to use email in the meantime. I'll probably head home early so I can take care of it in the IRC channel, though. KF
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If anyone's still looking for a badge, I think there are a few guys over on the Shizz looking to transfer their registration.
It seems that LaoS already sold his (seeing the MAGFest board). I'll PM you about this shortly.
How does transferring the registration work, anyway? Do they just forward you the email, and I can take that up to the front desk to get the badge? I'm assuming that, given the number of people buying/selling badges, there's a way to do this, but I'm not sure how. KF
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Aren't there still people here selling their badges? I'd try to contact them asap if you're still looking for a badge.
I can't tell who has sold their badge yet. I did just PM Less Ashamed of Self though.
IF ANYONE IS STILL SELLING THEIR BADGE, PLEASE PLEASE CONTACT ME ASAP--OR POST IN THIS THREAD AND I'LL CONTACT YOU. KF
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So... a bit of a problem. I'm pre-regged, but Jenner isn't, and I don't want her to come all the way down and suddenly not be able to attend MAG.
Anyone know if I can pick up a badge for her at the door on Thursday and just give it to her Friday? I know the pre-reg cap was met, but I don't know if they'll be holding any at-door badges aside on Thursday. KF
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Awesome. Gotta find a shitty game for him to sign...
Mad Gear might have some copies of Shaq-Fu or Superman64 up for sale. KF
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This may have already been asked, but... does anyone know when the concert schedule will be going up? I'm afraid I may end up having to miss half of Thursday's concerts. KF
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Piano (solo), followed by ocarina. Acoustic guitar (solo, again) may be a close third. KF
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I have class on Thursday night... But I'm gonna be there all-day beforehand, step out for class, then come back thereafter.
Man the change in schedule is really messing with me. But no matter, I'm still gonna make it. KF
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...I think my order got lost in the mail... It's been in-transit for two weeks. KF
EDIT: Scratch that; it just came in today!
Great start to the new year, eh?
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Really big fan of Random, but not so much a fan of FF7. I think I'll check this one out, though. KF
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A great line no-one's mentioned yet - your choice of the word "created" here is a stroke of genius. It implies a destiny; an inevitability about the situation that no matter how hard he tries, the Quick Man will never win, so his efforts are in vain. We know this, he knows this, yet he still tries, and we empathise with him.
...I quoted those exact same lines in the previous page as my favorite lyrics in the entire piece.
For the exact same reasons, no less. That's why this is my favorite that The Megas have done--though the one based on the level select theme approaches it. I could get all Asimov on an interpretation of the lyrics here, too, based around just those three lines--something about the implicit analogy between robots' programming and humans' destiny/fate gets to the sci-fi fan in me. KF
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Ok, fear not because Windows has made this process sufficiently nonsensical.
Anyway, assuming you opened it in MS Outlook (and not an online email thing like GMail, in which case it's probably in your default downloads folder), then it's going to be somewhere under:
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name -or- All Users]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\[random letters]
1. Figure out if it's under [user name] or All Users--that should be easy by hitting the Windows key and seeing if it says "Log off [user name]". If you can't figure it out, then just guess.
2. Through Windows Explorer, go to:
C:\Documents and Settings\[user name -or- All Users]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
Note that "Temporary Internet Files" doesn't actually show up, even if you have it set to show hidden folders, so you'll have to enter that in the address bar manually.
3. Through Command Prompt (go to Windows->Run and type CMD), enter these commands:
C:
cd C:\Documents and Settings\[user name -or- All Users]\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
dir
That will give you the subfolders under here (again, they don't show up in Explorer)
4. Search through the root "Temporary Internet Files" folder, then search through each of the folders you saw in step (3), for your DOC file. If that doesn't work, then go back to step (1) and pick another username.
Hope that helps. KF
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It's near Seven Corners - about a 2 mile trek from the hotel.
Ok, sounds good.
Also, one of my favorite Japanese restaurants is nearby, Kyoto Cafe (on King Street, close to I-395 so not in old town Alexandria). If anyone's up for it, one of those MAG evenings we should try to hit the place up. KF
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I'm the opposite - I still love physical CDs, especially if I ever have a hard drive crash, as I've lost a lot of music that way. Having CDs lets me recover a lot of my collection faster.
This. I always prefer physical CDs. As often as I have to deal with media crashes, having a physical copy ensures that I don't have to worry about when my last backup was made, how often my backup utilities run, or what a pain it'd be if I have to format my hard drive.
Anyway, I just found out about this today. I'll be ordering at least one copy this afternoon if not more. This is awesome news. KF
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Once I got to the point of being able to understand Japanese VAs without subtitles, it did seem that the voice acting in general wasn't as good as when I first started watching anime. It's still good, but not as good.
So, that'd seem to confirm that there's a certain amount of bias that does come from not being able to understand the language (i.e., being able to gloss over bad language as mentioned before). But, there are a lot of Japanese VAs that are nevertheless a lot better than their American counterparts. ...there are also a lot of cases where I prefer the American VA over the Japanese one.
Most of my experience comparing the two directly though is with video game voice acting, which usually has the same positives/pitfalls as anime voice acting.
Most of the things that irritate me in Japanese voice acting have already been mentioned. I don't like the high-pitched voices for young characters, for instance. With American voice acting, the most common problem I've heard is bland or underemphatic acting. KF
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Best review incentive ever.
But really, now that classes are done, I should be able to get to more than a few finally. KF
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For those coming on Thursday afternoon - who wants to go take a trip to the Dogfish Head Alehouse that evening?
Where is that--is it near you guys in Arlington?
I should be game for that (assuming nothing comes up in the meantime to prevent me). Jenner too if she can get here soon enough. KF
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Actually my preferred method of playing Civ is PBEM mode, which I was extremely happy that they included in Civ IV. Dunno if play by e-mail made it into Civ V or not, but the idea is that you play one game over the course of many weeks with 6-person multiplayer...it's not a LAN friendly game. Also, with grad school taking up more and more of my time recently, I really enjoy playing a game where I only have to spend 10 minutes every couple of days to be at maximum efficiency.
I've only had bad experiences with PBEM. I've tried it four times (thrice with Civ4, one with SMAC) and every time by the 10th-20th turn someone in that email chain forgot to check their email so often that the game got abandoned.
This even happens when there are only 3-4 people, and everyone's like "I swear I check my email every day!" Someone forgets, and the game turns into three days of "who had the last turn?"/"I sent it, did you get it?" and one day of someone in that chain actually taking their turn.
After that, I'm done with PBEM. That consistent a result even with completely different sets of people leads me to believe that the fifth time I try it, it'll turn out the same. KF
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I decided to go back and play Civ1 for some nostalgia. It's fun, but man oh man are there so many nonsensical irritants. Like ancient-era phalanx defeating my battleships, or settlers defeating riflemen. Also, how the AI will move units into your territory, "sneak attack", beg for peace, move more units into your territory, "sneak attack", etc.. And how the AI will demand tribute from you despite being 1000 years behind in technology.
So, yeah. Civ4 and Civ4:BTS got to a pretty good point with AI. The AI worked smarter, not harder, so to beat them you had to be smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies. Civ5, the AI seems stuck in an older game, so I'm hoping that some later development might 'fix' this without requiring an actual change to the game. KF
MAGFest 9 is gone - PMD sets in :(
in General Discussion
Posted
Leaving right now. Be there in five minutes!
Plus however long it takes to park.
...any help on those questions earlier in the thread would still be appreciated; if I find out today from the hotel staff then I'll post up an answer for anyone else also wondering about parking options. KF