Random

If you were to ask me a week or two ago what my favorite Squaresoft/Square Enix role-playing game was, I’d have replied with Final Fantasy IV. It was the first RPG from Square I ever had the chance to play, and one of the first SNES games I touched. And it touched me. The story, the amazing soundtrack, the graphics–everything about it screamed perfection. At the time I was young and didn’t realize just how much had been left out by the game’s translation when initially released stateside.

I’d played Final Fantasy V and VI, but neither held up to FFIV. Well, last weekend I replayed through FFVI, and I must say there was a lot I had forgotten about the game, and it definitely has a much more rich and fleshed out plot than FFIV had. I guess not playing it for more than 15 years could do that.

Now I’d say it’s much closer to being a tie between the two. Then Secret of Mana comes in as number 3 of my favorite Square RPGs. In my opinion, Final Fantasy died with the release of FFVII, so I haven’t played anything past it. But what about Chrono Trigger? (more…)

メロンパン, or "melon bread"

Before I go on, I must inform you that this whole thing is about baking bread. I rarely bake cakes, cookies, etc.

For those who don’t know, the catalyst for my love of baking was an anime called Yakitate!! Japan. As an anime, it’s not particularly the greatest, but as an introduction to baking it’s superb. The clip that first got me interested in the show in the first place is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMH8Tof69SE .

Just about everything baking-related the show talks about (minus the super powers some people seem to possess in the show) is sound baking advice. After watching several episodes of the show, I thought I’d give it a shot. That was about six years ago. (more…)

As I sit here munching on junk food, I am also writing my post about a workout routine. You see, Rainman has been talking about starting the P90X exercise routine for a few weeks now. That’s cool and all, but he wants me to go through the 90-day program with him.

Say wha?!

After reading through some of the literature, I can understand why. It’s intense with a strict diet and workout schedule to adhere to. Every day. For 90 days. Once he gets all the equipment and things needed for the program, I guess he’ll begin. Or should I say, we’ll begin it. I’m not opposed to exercise. I took a weight training class in college one semester, I’ve done tae kwon do, yoga and more. But this looks to be more than just exercise. It’s more like a lifestyle change. And there are some things I just don’t want to change.

Then again, it would be nice to have some pants fit without feeling like a struggle. I have put on weight since coming back from Japan, so maybe this’ll be good for me.

Here in the Austin area of Texas, it’s been freezing the past day or so. Literally. The temperature as I write is 21 degrees Fahrenheit. For those of you in the rest of the world, that’s -6 degrees Celsius. Now, to people up north, it’s really not that bad, not when they have temperatures of below 0 F. I offer up the follow explanation, but not defense, for what drivers in Texas are so awful during winter weather:

1. Have you seen them try to drive in the rain? It’s bad. Now change it to a different form of precipitation, say, snow. It’s rare down here, so you have drivers paying more attention to the snow than the road.
2. The ground here usually stays warm, so when that snow hits, it melts, but the wind comes over and turns it into ice. Thin layers of ice we call black ice. That’s part of why people here can’t drive during winter: we can’t see the ice on the road.

What does this all mean? Perfect weather for job hunting! Well, except for when I have to venture out to the temp agency next week to see if I can find some work. As long as it gets me on my way to paying off a few bills and saving up money, I’m down with that. Of course, if I could get hired on directly with a company to have benefits, that’d be even better.

When I spoke with my mom about my idea, she kept asking, “OK, but once you’re in Japan and you learn more Japanese, then what?” I replied by telling her that I wanted to work in Japan, and she kept asking, “Doing what? What will you do in Japan?” At the time, I didn’t have the best answer really. Now, I think I’d like to stay in the publication design field or try to get into localization/translation.